The Long Way Home
by kgmohror
Summary: After Kid and Lou stop riding double, Kid makes a fateful decision. Will Lou be able to move on without the man she loves?
1. Chapter 1

_Note: This story takes place after "Daisy." I specialize in angsty fanfic, so the period when Kid and Lou were broken up offered rich ground to explore. Please excuse a few liberties and improbabilities (like moving the Black Hills closer to Nebraska!)._ _Usual disclaimers about ownership apply._

Katy's hooves kicked up a low cloud of dust as she thundered over the prairie toward the isolated waystation. Leaning forward in the saddle, Kid squinted as the squat buildings got closer. Even from this distance, Kid recognized the rider who dashed out of the bunkhouse at the hollered summons, "Rider comin'!" The young Virginian knew every line of that slim form, the small hand that reached up to secure a hat big enough to mostly conceal the delicate features beneath, the fluid swing up into the saddle of the mount that Jimmy had led from the barn.

Lou.

The sight of her was like reaching for a tall glass of cold spring water at the end of an eight-hour ride … and having that icy fluid dashed in his face as he remembered he no longer had the right to look at Louise McCloud that way.

Trying to ignore the sick feeling in his gut that accompanied the memory of his recent break-up with the woman he still loved, Kid shifted subtly in the saddle, preparing to hand off the mochila in the precise maneuver that had become second nature to all the riders after months of practice. But this time, as he brought Katy up next to Lightning, something was slightly off – in the split second that he held the leather bag toward Lou, he saw her reach out just a hair too far. The bag slipped through her fingers, and as he galloped past, Kid sensed, rather than saw, the girl lose her balance and tumble from her saddle. Katy's momentum had already carried her rider a few dozen yards before Kid could pull back hard on the reins, using more force on Katy than he would for anything other than anxiety for Lou.

Wheeling the horse around, he squeezed Katy's flanks with his knees, urging her into a run – only to pull up short again. Jimmy was already beside Lou, helping her to her feet, looking earnestly into her face, brushing the dust off her jacket with a concerned familiarity that made the blood pound in Kid's ears. Lou barely paused to catch her breath, disengaging herself from young Hickok and leaping back onto Lightning. She gave her horse a sharp dig with her heels and the animal immediately surged forward. Horse and rider passed within a foot of Kid and Katy, but Lou remained hunched forward, eyes focused on the trail ahead as if her former lover weren't even there.

Shoulders slumped and head down, Kid climbed off Katy's back and led her toward the stable. He heard Jimmy calling behind him, but ignored him as well as Buck and Cody, who just then ambled out from the paddock. The customary grin on Cody's face faded at the sight of Kid's grim countenance. Cody and Buck exchanged a quick, sidelong glance and veered in the opposite direction from their clearly ill-tempered "brother." In the weeks since whatever it was that came between Lou and Kid, the other riders had grown accustomed to the Kid's dark mood … and learned to avoid him whenever possible.

As usual, Kid lingered in the stable, brushing Katy, examining her carefully for any sign of injury after the punishing ride over rough terrain, and finally filling the oat bucket. He watched while his Painted beauty contentedly munched her feed. When the feeder was empty, Kid fished an apple out of his pocket and offered it to his sturdy companion. It occurred to Kid that Katy felt like the only real friend he had. The young cowboy heaved a heavy sigh at the thought. It wasn't true, of course; he knew his bunkhouse brothers, along with Rachel and Teaspoon, cared for him deeply … as he did them. But since leaving Virginia, and for a long time even before that, Kid had been a loner. He thought he preferred it that way – the solitary wandering, finding his own destiny. He wanted no part of the anger and violence that were his only real experience of "family."

Then he met Lou. As much as the acceptance of Teaspoon and the boys had given him a sense of belonging he'd never known before, it was Louise who taught him how it felt to care about someone else more than his own life. And it was from Lou that he learned how much a man could hurt, how deep a well loneliness could be.

He shook his head. It was wrong to lay his misery on Lou. It was his own fault. He'd been a damned fool from beginning to end – a fool when he took her to bed, knowing it \wasn't right; a fool when he allowed himself to dream of a future with her; a fool to let his pride push him away from her after she declined his proposal; a _colossal_ fool to take up with that schoolteacher out of spite and hurt; and most of all, Kid knew himself a fool for continuing to pine for that little brown-eyed filly who still owned him heart and soul, but who he'd never have again. Watching Lou and Jimmy get closer as he stood on the sidelines was like a knife to Kid's chest. He was haunted by the memory of seeing the two of them in each other's arms and how the fear that washed over him nearly brought him to his knees. Terror that he was losing her had driven him to propose before either one of them was ready, and his damnable pride had prevented him from accepting her refusal with grace and patience.

Rachel had run the dinner bell twice before Kid trudged up to the house. He found the riders around the table, dinners half-eaten and deep in conversation about something that had Teaspoon shaking his head. Kid sat down silently. He acknowledged the full plate Rachel handed him with a slight nod and bent his head to his meal. Mired in his misery, he only half heard what the others were talking about so animatedly.

"Well, it's gonna make things damned ticklish for McNaughton," Teaspoon commented. Kid perked up his ears just a bit, recognizing the name of Teaspoon's counterpart at the Sand Springs station, far away in the Nevada Territory.

"I've crossed paths a time or two with that Breverton fella," Jimmy said. "I knew he was wild, but I never figured he'd end up at the wrong end of a pistol in a saloon fight."

Teaspoon grunted. "There's a reason I've told you boys to keep your noses clean and your boots in the stirrups. Now McNaughton's down a rider and he won't be easy to replace. That far west, things ain't so settled as they are here, and them's that _are_ there are more interested in mining and whoring than risking their necks in Paiute country."

"Do you think McNaughton would take me on?"

All heads swiveled toward Kid, whose unexpected remark brought the conversation to a stunned standstill.

Teaspoon studied the young man carefully a moment, then drawled, "I reckon he might, son, if you didn't already have a job here."

Kid set down his fork and looked Teaspoon in the eyes. "I'd be more use in Sand Springs than I am here. Since Noah joined on, we've got plenty of riders here in Sweetwater."

"Aw, you're funnin' us, Kid," Cody blurted. "You wouldn't go work for someone else."

Kid ignored his friend's outburst. "Well, Teaspoon? Do you think I'd have a chance at that Sand Springs route?"

"You're known fer bein' a good, steady rider," Teaspoon answered. "I think any station master would be glad to take you on."

"I'd be obliged if you'd put in a word for me with McNaughton," Kid said.

Teaspoon nodded gravely. "If that's what you really want, Kid. Maybe you'd better think on it a spell. I don't know as I can promise to hold your spot here if you change your mind down the road."

"That won't be necessary, Teaspoon." Kid pushed his plate away and stood up. "It's time I was movin' on."

* * *

The sun was a blood-red ball dipping low on the horizon as Lou turned Lightning into the paddock to cool down and graze before putting him up for the night. Her hand-off to Buck had gone without a hitch, and the young man was already well on his way west, his familiarity with the land and keen senses making him the rider who most often took on the night runs at Sweetwater.

Lou pulled off her hat and ran a sleeve across her dust-begrimed forehead. It had been a long week since she'd accepted Kid's hand-off and departed for St. Joe. Hours in the saddle gave a gal a lot of time to think, and mile after mile what Lou mostly thought about was the Kid.

Things couldn't go on the way they were between them. Lou blamed herself for Kid's reaction to her refusing his proposal. She hadn't explained herself right, didn't make him understand why she said what she did. If he only knew how badly she had longed to tell him yes, throw her arms around his neck and let him kiss her senseless! But she couldn't; not yet. There were things Kid didn't know about her – things she wasn't sure she ever wanted him to know – and besides, she just wouldn't give up the life and job she loved to fit his notion of what a proper wife should be. She hadn't yet stored up enough to be able to take care of her brother and sister, for one thing. Mostly, though, she was unclear in her own mind how what happened in Redfern affected how Kid felt about her. Did he think less of her now, having proof she wasn't a "proper lady?" Lou felt her cheeks grow hot at the memory of Kid taking up with the new schoolmarm while her spot on his bedroll was practically still warm. How could he do that, if he really loved her?

It had hurt to see him with that genteel Southern lady, and even more to learn he'd fought a duel over her – risked his life for a woman he barely knew! Finding that out, Lou could almost forgive herself for getting close to Jimmy while they were on that run – almost. But deep down, she knew it was wrong to lean on Jimmy for comfort; she was aware of his feelings for her … feelings she could never reciprocate. Not feeling the way she did about Kid.

She loved him. The hardness that had sprung up between them hadn't changed how her heart cleaved to the young man with the chestnut curls, eyes like a summer sky and a smile that could make a girl forget to breathe. Lou ached to feel his strong arms around her, his soft lips pressed against hers. She could only hope that, with enough time, the Kid's anger and resentment toward her might fade. Perhaps he could even learn to care for her again.

The moon had risen by the time Lou finished seeing to Lightning and made her way wearily to the bunkhouse. The riders' quarters felt strangely quiet as she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Welcome back, Lou," Jimmy said in a low tone. He and Ike were at the table in the center of the room, playing cards. "Yeah, hey, Lou," Noah added from his bunk, where he lay reading a newspaper by lamplight. Ike, looking serious, gave her a nod. Buck was absent, having taken the mochila from her for the next leg of the westward run, and Lou knew Cody would be out on the east run. That just left …

Lou's eyes were drawn toward the bunk she shared with Kid, and was startled to see the bottom bed stripped down to the hay-filled cotton ticking. At the foot of the bed, the space for Kid's trunk, which contained the few possessions he had, was empty. A shiver of anxiety pulsed through the girl rider.

"Where's the Kid?" she asked in as steady a voice as she could muster. Her question was greeted with uncomfortable silence.

"Jimmy, where is he?" Lou crossed the room and grabbed Hickok's shoulder, turning him toward her. Reluctant to meet her gaze, he mumbled, "He's gone, Lou."

"What do you mean he's gone? Gone where?"

Noah sat up and swung his legs over the bunk. "Sand Springs, in Nevada Territory."

Lou's eyebrows knitted in puzzlement. "Clear to Sand Springs? That ain't even part of our division."

"He ain't in our division no more, Lou," Jimmy said. "He rides with McNaughton's boys outta Sand Springs station."

Feeling a sudden weakness in her legs, Lou backed toward the bunks and sat down on Kid's bare mattress. "'Til when?"

"I guess 'til he decides to up and leave that place, too." Jimmy affected an air of indifference, but Lou saw he was tense.

"Yer talkin' crazy! Kid wouldn't just leave like that."

"'Cept that's just what he did," Noah said. "Left the morning after you went on this last run."

Lou turned her attention back to Jimmy. "Why didn't you stop him? You know he's needed here!"

"I talked 'til I was blue in the face, and Cody did, too," Jimmy replied defensively. "You know things have been prickly between Kid and me lately. Why do you think he'd listen to anything I had to say anyway?"

Lou snatched up the hat she'd set beside her on the bed and headed for the door. Jimmy was instantly on his feet and placed himself between her and the exit. "Where you think you're goin', Lou?"

Miss McCloud placed a defiant hand on Jimmy's broad chest and gave a hard push. "I'm going after him, of course. Now get outta my way, Jimmy."

He grabbed her by the shoulders tight enough to pinch. "You can't do that. He left of his own accord, Lou. Sometimes a man's got to do what he's got to do."

Jimmy's sharp tone caused Lou's shoulders to sag and her gaze hit the floor. "I just don't understand it, Jimmy. Why? Why would he take off like that, without even a – a –" She fought to keep the tears out of her voice. "-goodbye? Did he say anything?" She looked up at the hot-tempered cowboy hopefully. "Leave some message for me?"

Hickok shook his head. "Sorry, Lou. You know how hard-headed he is."

Lou nodded. She did indeed know how stubborn and determined her lover – her _former_ lover – could be. But she never imagined he would turn tail and run from the closest thing to a family he had … give that up to get away from _her_. Defeated, Lou pulled away from Jimmy and clambered into her top bunk. Wrapping her blanket around her, she thought she'd never experienced a feeling so cold and empty. And she knew this was just the first of every single night of the rest of her life without the Kid.


	2. Chapter 2

Lou sighed wearily as she and Lightning finally reached the outskirts of the village of Douglas just as dusk was falling. Two months and five days. That's how long it had been since Kid left Sweetwater, and there'd been no word from him. There hadn't even been any word _of_ him, though Lou and the other boys had taken every opportunity along their routes to ask other riders if they'd heard of their former teammate. It had Lou all tied up in knots, worrying over him. Kid could protect himself, but Lou fretted that in some life-or-death situation, his naturally peaceable nature would make him hesitate for the split-second it would take someone less tender-hearted to plant a piece of lead between his eyes.

After 11 hours in the saddle, Lou had been relieved to hand off her mochila to a rider at the station, and with no return packet waiting, she decided to head into town and treat herself to a hot bath and a rare night in a real bed. With a pang, she realized the last time she'd stayed in a hotel was with Kid in Redfern.

Unlike that fairly decent hotel where she and Kid had been intimate the first time, the only lodgings in this small settlement were above a rather rough-looking saloon. Ordinarily, Lou hesitated to go into such houses of ill repute, for a variety of reasons. Tonight, though, she was just tired and discouraged enough to put aside her qualms.

Stepping through the swinging doors into the public house, Lou instantly found her eyes stinging and throat burning from the thick cloud of smoke that filled the room. Apparently this place was the designated watering hole for a wide radius of the country – the saloon thronged with cowboys, card players and fancy women. Peering through the crowd, she saw a small counter at the back of the room, next to a staircase that presumably led upstairs to the sleeping rooms. A bored-looking man stood behind the counter, leaning on his elbows and watching the activity in the room. Lou pulled her wide-brimmed hat a little further over her face and began to edge her way between the clusters of tables and milling drinkers.

She'd nearly reached her destination when her peripheral vision caught a broad patch of light brown at the bar to her left. Glancing over, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a man leaning over the bar, his back to her. He was wearing buckskin trousers and a matching fringed tunic; a thick shock of curly brown hair curled underneath the collar. His head was bowed, shoulders hunched, and he swayed slightly as he stood at the bar.

Lou would know that form anywhere in the world. She was about to race over to him, without really knowing what she'd do when she got there, when he turned his head to gesture to the barman for another drink. Lou gasped. She could see he was unshaven, an uneven stubble peppering his strong jawline. In profile, his face looked slightly distorted, his normally aquiline nose marred by an angry red cut and his left eye swollen almost shut. Her heart leapt toward him, every particle in her body desperate to hold him, soothe him, caress his battered features with her hands and lips.

Just then Kid raised an arm and slammed his fist down on the bar, causing shot glasses to rattle all along the polished wood surface. Through the babble of strange voices, Lou made out the Kid's familiar baritone – but thick and slurred in a way she'd never heard before.

"Hey! Whassit take to get a drink arou'n this joint?"

At the other end of the bar, the barkeep looked over with a disgusted expression.

"Hold your horses, cowboy," he snapped. "I'll get to you in a minute. Ain't like you're dyin' of thirst."

Kid responded with a belligerent wave of his arm and hunkered down over his shot glass again. Lou suddenly realized she'd moved closer during this exchange, so that she now stood only a few feet behind the man she thought she knew better than any other, but who now seemed a stranger. Kid rarely drank, and apart from one incident where they were all led astray by his dissolute brother, always in moderation.

Caught between a need to get a closer look at him and an unfamiliar uneasiness over how he might react to seeing her, Lou hesitated. At that moment a woman approached Kid from his right side. She was dressed in a flounced red dress that seemed only half there at both ends. Her face was painted and she wore a garish feather in her long, blond hair. Lou watched her sidle up to Kid and lean toward him. He seemed oblivious to her until she placed her lips close to his ear and whispered something. Kid's head shot up and he reared back from the woman, who laughed at his obvious shock. Lou watched her lightly run her fingers up his arm and say something more in a low voice.

Kid shook his head. "No, thank you, ma'am," he mumbled. "I appreciate the invitation, but I ain't looking for that kinda company tonight." In spite of the disturbing tableau before her, Lou had to smile slightly, noting that the Kid's courtly Southern manners hadn't left him.

The woman's response was to dart her face toward his and kiss him firmly on the mouth. For a second Lou was afraid he was going to kiss her back, but he immediately pulled away and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I said I wasn't interested," he growled. "I already gotta girl." As if suddenly realizing what he'd said, Kid's shoulders slumped and he looked down. "I _hadda_ girl," he almost whispered in a tone that pierced Lou's heart.

"Well, if she let a handsome young buck like you get away, she can't be too bright," the soiled dove cooed ingratiatingly, tightening her hand around his bicep.

With the speed he usually reserved for a quick draw, Kid grabbed the woman's wrist and flung her arm away from him, knocking his shot glass off the bar in the process. "You ain't got no call to say that," he sputtered, weaving drunkenly as he took a step toward the now-affronted lady.

"Take it easy, mister," she spat, giving him a hard push with the flat of her palm. He staggered back a step, regained a semblance of balance and advanced toward her. "Take it back, what you said," he demanded. He extended his long arms and grasped the lady's bare shoulders. "Didja hear me? Take it back!"

Lou's heart pounded in her ears as she watched the scene rapidly becoming more dangerous.

"Git your hands off me, you dirty waddie," the painted peacock screeched at him. Lou saw Kid's eyes darken at the derogatory term for a hired cowhand. Suddenly a burly figure interjected himself between Kid and the woman.

"Nobody molests my ladies," he barked in a gravelly voice.

"I warn't molestin' nobody," Kid retorted, "and besides, I don't see no _ladies_ around here."

The man's eyes flashed fire and he shoved Kid hard, knocking the younger man to the hard plank floor. With an agility belying his intoxicated state, Kid was instantly back on his feet and closing on his opponent. As he drew back his arm to throw a punch, Lou heard herself cry out, "Kid!"

Instantly his head swiveled in her direction and she saw his eyes widen. "Lou?"

Then a ham-sized fist collided with Kid's jaw, knocking him flat-out on the floor. He lay moaning as his adversary stood over him, ready to deliver a swift kick, but Lou was at Kid's side in an instant. Kneeling beside him, she grabbed his elbow and started trying to haul him to his feet.

"I'm awful sorry, mister," she said in as mannish a voice as she could muster. "My brother here has been feeling poorly. Ma's afeard he might be tetched. It runs in the family."

"Well, you oughtn't let a loon out among decent folks," the man said sternly, but Lou could see the worst of his fury had dissipated "

"Yer right," Lou agreed, roping her arms around Kid's waist. He was on his feet, but still dazed and apparently not grasping what was going on around him. "I'll just get him to bed."

"Are we goin' to bed, Lou?" Kid mumbled, lolling his head on her shoulder. "No, that cain't be right."

"Never mind, Kid," Lou murmured, tugging him away from the belligerent circle around them. "I'm gonna take good care of you. You'll be right as rain in the morning." They made it as far as the check-in counter before Kid's legs failed him and he slumped into an unconscious heap at Lou's feet.

Lou gave the man behind the counter a dollar for a room, and another 25 cents to have one of the stocktenders throw Kid's limp body over his shoulder and tote him upstairs, where the young cowboy was unceremoniously dumped onto the bed. Lou locked the door after the stockman left, then turned to look at her former beau. He was a tangle of long limbs across the mattress and his breathing had deepened into a raspy snore.

Though the single kerosene lamp on the bedside table didn't provide much illumination, Lou was able to see, once she got close to him, that Kid was in even worse shape than she'd thought. In addition to the cut on his nose and blackened eye, the skin on the right side of his neck was scraped raw from his jawline to his collarbone. And now there was a rapidly darkening, fist-shaped bruise forming under his eye where he'd just been punched. Lou gently ran her thumb over the several days' growth of stubble on his chin. At her touch, he unconsciously turned his face so her hand cupped his cheek and mumbled something unintelligible into her palm. Gently she pushed him onto his back and straightened out his limbs. Seeing his lips still moving soundlessly, she leaned her ear close to his mouth and could just make out what he was saying in his troubled sleep. It was the same phrase, over and over again:

"I'm sorry, Lou. I'm so sorry …"

Louise pulled the scratchy wool blanket up over his shoulders. She was tempted to lay down beside him, just to hear him breathe, feel his warmth against her as she had in Redfern. Instead, she tugged off her jacket and sat down on a creaky wooden chair in the corner of the room. She sat and for a long while watched him toss and turn, occasionally whimpering as if he were a small, frightened boy.

Lou's heart broke a little with each restless movement. Shaking her head, she whispered, "What happened to you, Kid?"


	3. Chapter 3

Early morning sunlight slanting through the small, dirty hotel room window lanced through the Kid's eyelids, making him squint and roll over to escape the light. His head was exploding and his gut roiled. Still half-asleep, he heaved himself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed and dropped his head into his open hands.

"I feel like I'm dyin'," he gasped.

"Well, I'd say you're three-quarters there."

At the sound of the soft voice, Kid's head shot up and swiveled toward the corner of the room. A small figure was curled up in a chair, her canvas coat draped over her as a blanket. Dark eyes in a pale, heart-shaped face stared at him.

"Lou!" Kid lurched to his feet, only to stumble against the bedside table, almost upsetting the guttering kerosene lamp. Then Lou was beside him, pushing down on his shoulders until he slumped, defeated, back on the bed. She sat down next to him.

"What are you doing here, Lou?" he asked, his voice muffled under the arms he'd crossed over his face.

"Keepin' you from burnin' the place down and gettin' yourself killed, looks like," she responded calmly.

"I mean, what are you doing here, in …" he faltered. "Ah, hell. I don't even know where I am."

"Douglas. And unlike you, I'm here doin' my job."

He sneaked a peek at her from beneath the fringe of his sleeve. "Well, you better go on and do it then."

"Not a'fore I get an explanation of why I find you in a saloon, drunk as a skunk and pickin' fights with fellas twice your size. Good lord, Kid. You know the company don't allow drinkin'. You signed the oath."

Kid braced his arms on the bed and sat up again to face her. "I don't work for the company any more, and-" He stopped suddenly and a strange look came over his face, which had gone pasty white. "I'm gonna be sick!" Doubling over, he had just enough time to grab the brass spittoon next to the bed before disgorging the contents of his stomach into it. He retched again and again until he was clutching his stomach in agony. Finally the cramps subsided and he wiped his mouth with the back of his trembling hand.

"Feelin' better?" Lou's voice was surprisingly gentle.

Red-rimmed blue eyes looked up to meet her brown ones, narrowed with worry. "Please, Lou. Just go on. I don't want you to see me like this."

A sad smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. "I just seen you empty your belly into a bucket, Kid. I reckon it can't get any worse from here on out."

"Can't you understand? I don't want you here." Kid's voice had taken on an edge of desperation.

"Well, seein's how I paid for this here room, I don't guess you have much to say about it."

Kid glared at her. "Then _I'll_ go."

"No, I don't think you will."

"What's to stop me?"

Lou smirked. "I've hid your boots."

Kid looked down and noticed for the first time that his feet were indeed bare. "Gimme back my boots, Lou."

She folded her arms across her chest and stared back at him calmly. "Nope. Not 'til I get some answers, Kid."

He held her gaze a minute, then sighed heavily. "Really, I got nothin' to say that's worth hearin'. I've made a right mess of things, is all."

"You said you don't work for Russell, Majors and Waddell any more," Lou persisted. "I thought you were riding for McNaughton out of Sand Springs."

He shook her head. "Didn't last a week. McNaughton fired me."

Lou's eyes widened with genuine surprise. "Fired you? How come? You're the most reliable rider the company has!"

"Had. And McNaughton didn't see it that way." Ashamed, Kid averted his eyes from Lou's curious look. "He said I was too reckless, took too many chances. I s'pose he was right."

"You're not making any sense, Kid. You're not like Cody, taking fool risks – especially in Paiute country. You're smarter than that."

He shrugged miserably. "Guess I ain't so smart after all. I'd think you know that better'n anybody."

Lou flushed. Now was not the time to get into that. "So what have you been doing all this time?"

"Driftin', mostly. Worked a few days on a ranch west of Casper. Tried to hire on at the Camp Floyd station, but word got out that McNaughton let me go; I'll never ride with the Express again."

Lou swallowed hard. She would never have guessed the Kid could sink so low, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the end of their romance had more than a little to do with his current state. She reached out and gently touched the bruise beneath his left eye, causing him to flinch and shift a few inches away from her. Stung by his retreat, she dropped her hand. "I'm sorry," she said. "How did you get all beat up like this?"

"Last month I signed on as a scout to the McCall Mining Company reconnaissance of the Black Hills. There's talk of gold in the hills, but the Sioux in those parts aren't exactly friendly toward the white man."

Lou was horrified. "Dang it, Kid! You ain't had enough of being chased by Kiowa and Paiute, now you gotta go making enemies of the Sioux, too?"

"The pay was good."

The girl rider resisted the urge to give him a good kick. "Ain't no paycheck worth a man's life." When he only shrugged, she continued, "So it was the Sioux that tore you up like this?"

He shook his head. "A week ago, me and the three other company men started out with some placer gold we'd panned and our survey maps back to Denver. We'd made it to this side of the Badlands when the others decided they'd rather keep the gold for themselves and to hell with the company that paid them to find it. When I wouldn't join them, they took my gun, pistol-whipped me and left me for dead by the side of the trail."

Lou shuddered, imagining Kid, with his deep integrity, facing the traitors down, preferring a brutal death in the wilderness to betraying his employer's trust.

"When I came to, they were gone, along with the gold, the survey and …" his voice hitched a bit, "… they took Katy with 'em."

"Aw, no." Lou knew that his painted pony was just about the most important thing in the world to Kid. "So how'd you come to be here?"

"Walked, mostly. Finally got picked up by a drover on his way here from Denver. He dropped me off outside the saloon and … I just came in and sat down." At Lou's puzzled look, he muttered. "Lost the gold, the survey documents and everything I owned. Didn't know what else to do at the moment."

"So where'd you get the money to pour all that liquor down your throat?"

"I sold my hat to the barkeep. It was the only thing I had left that was worth anything." Something in his tone told her he was speaking of more than his material possessions. Though his mournful tone tugged at her heartstrings, Lou wasn't about to let him off easy.

"And what were you fixin' to do once you've drunk up the rest of your hat?"

He shrugged miserably. "If the whiskey didn't kill me, I figured I'd go down to the sheriff's office and turn myself in."

"What? Why would you want to do a fool thing like that?"

"That gold and that survey was my responsibility, Lou. I owe it to the company, and there's no way I can pay it back. I reckon I'll have to work off the debt in prison."

"Damn it, Kid! I swear you're so high-minded your brains have fallen out the top of your head."

He looked at her, startled by her ferocity.

"It didn't occur to you to tell anyone what happened to you and rustle up a posse to go after them crooks?"

"'Course it did! But the government's got no jurisdiction in the hills, so they won't help. And there's nobody around here fool enough to ride into Sioux country for some stranger who can't give them anything in return."

Now Lou did give him a sharp toe to the shin. "Ow!" he complained, but her eyes flashed fire at him.

"It seems to me that there are at least five fellas back in Sweetwater who would ride beside you without expecting anything for it. I'm talkin' about your brothers, Kid. And me."

At this, Kid pushed himself off the bed and staggered to the door. "No way, Lou. I ain't involving y'all in my mess. Ain't I ashamed enough without that?"

Louise sighed. Damned, stubborn male pride! She reached under the bed for Kid's boots. "Fine," she said, tossing them in his direction. "You've gotta do what you gotta do." She stood up and reached for her hat and gun belt. "And so do I."

"Meaning what?" Kid demanded, stumbling a bit as he stood on one foot, then another, tugging his boots on.

"Meaning, you go on and get yourself locked up, and I'll go after the ones who seem to have beaten any kernel of sense you ever had right out of you." Lou had come up to Kid, who was standing by the door, and glared up into his blue eyes.

"Oh, no you ain't," he protested, leaning against the door to keep her from opening it.

"And how do you propose to stop me?" she replied calmly, folding her arms across her chest. "You'll be in jail."

Suddenly he clasped his big hands on her shoulders and looked down at her with a kind of wild fear in his eyes. "Please, Lou. Don't go puttin' yourself in danger for me. I ain't worth it."

She shrugged his hands off and lifted her chin defiantly. "Mebbe you ain't worth it, Kid." He flinched slightly at this, and Lou had to steel herself to continue. "But Katy is. I'm right fond of that horse, and I won't have her live out her days in the hands of those who aren't likely to care for her like she deserves."

At this, Kid turned and punched the door hard. "Damn it, Lou. Why do you have to be so galdurned stubborn?" He shook out his hand, which was clearly smarting from its hard contact with the timber door frame. "You know how I love Katy. But I couldn't stand it if something happened to you on my account.

Automatically, Lou reached up and grabbed his injured hand, briskly rubbing her palm over the reddening knuckles. "I guess you'd better come along to keep an eye on me, then." She knew if anything could get to the man, it would be appealing to his sense of chivalry. It had been a bone of contention between them in the past, but Lou was willing to use his protectiveness to her advantage now.

He stood a moment, breathing hard and obviously trying to think of some alternative. When he let out a long, resigned sigh, Lou knew she'd won this round. "Damn it all," he grumbled. "Just what did you have in mind?"

She looked into his grizzled face and frowned. "First, a shave." She couldn't help raising her hand, ruffling it through his disordered curls. "And then," she grinned, "we'll see about getting you a new hat."


	4. Chapter 4

_(Okay, Kid gets a little MacGyverish in this chapter. I'm not sure what he does would actually work, but that's what "willing suspension of disbelief" is for!)_

Lou resisted the strong urge to relax against the broad chest of the man behind her on the saddle. Kid had his arms looped loosely around her, holding the reins lightly in his folded hands. The sun was warm, the blue sky endless over the prairie as Lightning kept up a steady, but easy, gait. The men who had stolen Katy had two days on them already, and were likely holed up back in the Black Hills. No need to tax Lightning, already burdened with more than twice her usual load; they were entering Indian lands, and might have need of all the horse's speed and agility at any moment.

After hours of riding, they'd crossed from Nebraska Territory into Dakota Territory and now they could just make out the first jagged spires of the Badlands on the horizon; at this pace, they'd reach them by nightfall.

They rode silently, Kid still sulking over Lou getting the best of him and also that she had to pay for his shave and the powder-gray hat that now fit snugly over his crown; he hated to be beholden to anyone. For her part, Lou was turning over everything Kid had told her in her mind. She couldn't make sense of his recent behavior. They'd parted ways weeks before he'd taken off, and he'd never shown any inclination to risk his neck unnecessarily in the runs he'd had out of Sweetwater before that final hand-off. She strained her memory to try to identify something about that day that was different – something she'd said or done that might have driven him to throw away the life he'd been building … that they'd been building together, for a time. But try as she might, she couldn't come up with anything, and her brain was growing tired from running circles around itself.

Lou knew she should stay alert, scanning the horizon for any of the many varieties of danger they might encounter in this wild country. But the gentle rhythm of Lightning's canter, the warm sun and the previous night's uncomfortable sleeping arrangement lulled the young woman. She let her eyelids drift closed for just a moment … or perhaps longer, because when she opened them again she found herself slumped against Kid, her head on his shoulder. His arms had tightened around her slightly to make sure she didn't slip off the horse as she dozed. She felt his soft hair against her cheek as he leaned slightly forward to look over her at the landscape before them.

The young woman couldn't remember the last she'd felt so good. So safe. Kid's arms around her had always felt like they belonged there, as though their two bodies had been especially created to fit together, stronger as one joined piece than either of them on their own. How many times had she dreamed about this, in the weeks since she'd told him she couldn't marry him? Turning her head slightly, she nestled into the crook of his neck, inhaling deeply of the scent that was uniquely Kid. She felt his breath hitch and his body tense. Underneath her cheek, his heart was pounding hard. Lou felt a rush of joy, knowing she could still do that to him. Unwilling to let the moment go, she closed her eyes again and sighed into his chest. After a moment she felt Kid's hand move to her waist, gently snugging her closer against him.

"Lou …" His voice was thick and low in her ear, and it sent a shiver of need through Lou. She could reach up her hand now, pull his face down to hers, get lost again in the feel of his lips on hers. Oh, she wanted that …

Suddenly Kid stiffened in the saddle, dropping his hand from her waist to wind the reins tightly around his fist. He nudged Lightning's flanks with his knees, and the Mustang lurched into a gallop.

"What is it?" Lou asked, looking around.

"Horses," he muttered. "Six of them to the right of us."

She craned her head around and saw what he had: a line of dark shapes cresting a low hill a mile or so off. She couldn't yet make out the riders, but whoever they were, they clearly had seen Lightning and now increased their speed, the heels of their horses kicking up a cloud of dust behind them.

"Looks like trouble," Kid hissed in her ear. "If they start gaining on us, I'll pull up and slide down ... try and hold them off until you get away."

Lou twisted in the saddle and clutched at the suede of his buckskin tunic. "Oh, no you don't!" she snapped. "You're not throwing your life away for me, Kid, and you're not leaving me alone on this prairie."

"You'll ride faster without my weight," Kid protested.

"I swear to God, if you git off this horse, I'll turn right around and come back for ya."

"Ornery, stubborn woman …" she heard him mutter. "Then give me your pistol and you take the reins." She shot him a questioning look over her shoulder. "You're a better rider than I am, and I've got better aim," he explained.

Lou scrambled to untangle the reins from his big hand and felt him reach to her side where her Colt nestled in its holster on her hip. "Don't suppose you've got any firecrackers in your saddlebag," Kid whispered in her ear, causing her to look at him like he was crazy. Despite their predicament, her expression brought a grim half-smile to his face. "Guess we'll have to make do without," he breathed.

By this time the strange riders were close enough to identify as natives. "Pawnee, I think," Kid said. Though that tribe, sworn enemy of most of the other tribes of the plains, sometimes joined forces with the whites against their common adversaries, they retained a fearsome reputation as a people who had practiced human sacrifice up to only a few decades before. And the encroachment of white settlers, along with the large-scale culling of the buffalo herds that formed the core of their way of life, had lately caused increasing tension. As they closed on Lightning, the band let out a blood-curdling yell that clearly demonstrated their intentions were not friendly.

"You know what Teaspoon always told us," he murmured close in Lou's ear. In unison they gasped, "Run like hell!"

Lou leaned low over the saddle, quietly urging Lightning on. Kid grabbed tight to Lou's belt and dug his heels into Lightning's sides for balance as he twisted at the waist, Lou's gun in his hand. Kid was the best shot Lou had ever seen – better even than Jimmy, who spent a whole lot more time practicing. Kid had never shared where he'd learned sharpshooting, but Lou knew he had no relish for killing. He'd try just about everything else before he'd pull a trigger. But when he did, he hit his target every time.

"Make for the Badlands," Kid hollered. "They consider it haunted ground and won't follow us there."

Those crags on the horizon seemed impossibly far to Lou, but she fixed her gaze on her goal and left Kid to manage the threat behind them. Over the rolling countryside they raced, Lou using all of her skill to find gullies and crevices for Lightning to leap, hoping their pursuers' mounts wouldn't be so agile. Despite all her efforts, the band slowly gained on the double-mounted stallion. Suddenly Lou heard the crack of a shot and felt a bullet whistle past her head.

"Damn!" Kid cursed. Lou waited to hear the crack of his return shot, but it never came. Instead he shouted, "Do you carry a powder flask?"

"Yeah," she gasped in reply, reaching down toward her saddlebag. She pulled out the small, brass container and handed it to Kid. "What are you gonna do?" She knew if Kid expended all the ammunition in her pistol, reloading with the loose powder and balls on the back of a running horse would be near impossible.

"I ain't sure yet," he called back.

Another shot from behind. "Hope this works," Lou heard Kid mutter. She glanced over her shoulder and saw him pull his new hat from his head. Turning back to focus on the way ahead, she was vaguely aware of Kid frantically working his hands on something behind her. Suddenly she felt his weight shift sharply as he bent at almost a right angle to the saddle. "Kid!" she cried out, thinking he was falling. But then he was upright again and shouting at her to push Lightning harder. The braves on horseback were close enough now for Lou to hear the thunder of their horses' hoofbeats.

"I don't think we can outrun 'em," Lou gasped, just as a sudden explosion rocked the ground behind them. The measured beat of the pursuers instantly turned chaotic, and Lou heard the whinnying of terrified horses and shouts of confusion from the warriors, growing fainter as Lightning continued to surge ever-faster.

Minutes later it was apparent the war party had abandoned their pursuit, but neither Lou nor Kid felt easy enough to let Lightning drop to an easy pace. In deference to the loyal horse's obvious exhaustion, Lou finally dropped from a full sprint to a fast gallop. "Sorry, boy," she whispered. "I promise you'll get a nice, long rest as soon as we're in the Badlands."


	5. Chapter 5

When sunset came upon the Dakota Badlands, it was about as strange a sight as Lou had ever witnessed. They'd finally reached the edge of that strange region as the sun was lowering behind the tops of the weird rock formations, the deepening shadows causing the ribbons of reddish stone running through the barren peaks to darken to the color of blood. They'd stopped on the banks of the turbid White River to let Lightning cool down and slake his thirst. Lou didn't like the looks of the slow, milky current, heavy with sediment, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"What happened back there?" Lou asked Kid, who squatted next to the river, dashing the cold water on his flushed face.

He turned to her with a grin, looking so like his old self that Lou wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. "I wrapped up the powder flask in my hat and dropped it on the ground," he explained, obviously pleased with himself. "Then, as the war party got close, I shot it and the flask blew up like a stick of dynamite!"

Lou stared at him a moment, finding this tall tale hard to believe. Then she nodded slowly and, the edges of her mouth twitching, solemnly replied, "Well, Kid. All I can say is, you're mighty hard on hats."

* * *

"I'll take the first watch," Kid called softly to Lou, who was rubbing down Lightning a few feet away.

They'd eaten a quick, cold supper of jerky and dry biscuits beside the White River, then forded it and continued on into the heart of the Badlands until darkness made it too hazardous to ride blind in that rugged terrain. Now Lou tended to Lightning while Kid built a small fire and laid out their single bedroll next to it.

"Watch for what?" Lou answered, moving now to sit next to Kid beside the fire. "I thought you said the Indians were afraid to come into this place."

He nodded. "Indians, yeah. But there's plenty of critters that don't hold to them same beliefs."

"Critters?" Lou didn't like the sound of that. "What kind of critters?"

Kid shrugged. "Mountain lions, coyotes, sidewinders …"

"Snakes?" Lou blurted and scooted a little closer to him.

Kid grinned. "You know, Lou, sometimes you act mighty like a girl."

"That's cuz I am one," she retorted. "And I seem to recall you having quite a dramatic reaction to a spider you found in your bunk one morning. I don't believe even I can shriek that high-pitched."

Kid's grin turned a bit sheepish. "Yeah, well, that spider was as big as a calf." At her raised eyebrow, he ducked his head. "Well, pretty near as big, anyway."

Lou guffawed, and Kid joined her. When they caught their breaths again, Lou smiled sadly. "I've missed this," she said quietly. "Talkin'. Laughin'. It's nice."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence a moment. Then:

"Why'd ya leave, Kid?"

He picked up a stick and poked at the small blaze, not meeting her eyes. "It was for the best."

"That's no answer."

Kid sighed. "I just needed to get away, try and remember who I am again."

"You're not talkin' sense. What do you mean, remember who you are? You're Kid."

He swung his head to look at her then, his eyes fierce and glittering in the reflected firelight. "Since the day I left Virginia, I knew what I wanted. To be my own man. Make my own way. Work hard and save up enough to get my own stake someplace."

Lou nodded, still confused. "I know. Same as me."

"But after I joined the Express … things changed. I'd be riding along and see a nice piece of land, and I'd find myself wishin' you were there to look it over with me. Or there'd be a hill overlooking a valley, and I'd say to myself, 'That'd make a fine view from a cabin window, if we cleared away a few of them pines.'"

"So? It's no sin to have dreams, Kid."

"But don't you see? I wasn't just dreamin' about _my_ future anymore. I was thinkin' of _us_. Hell, what do I need a view for? I wanted it nice for _you_. To make _you_ happy. I was planning our life together." He stabbed at the dirt with the toe of his boot. "And when I found out that wasn't never gonna happen, well … it was just better for everybody that I left."

"Better for _you_ , you mean," Lou snapped, her own grief over those lost dreams sharpening her tongue.

He nodded. "I admit it. But I was thinkin' of you and Jimmy, too."

"What's Jimmy got to do with anything?"

"It'll be easier for the two of you, with me outta the way."

Lou was tired of trying to decipher his meaning. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Kid. Why don't you spell it out."

His voice took on a bitter edge. "I know about the two of you, Lou. No need to pretend it ain't so."

"If you're suggesting there's something goin' on between me and Jimmy, you've gone plumb loco!"

"I seen you together, Lou. You and him, with your arms around each other, outside the paddock."

"What? When?" Lou was genuinely baffled. "Kid, I don't know what you saw, but … it wasn't what you think. There's nothing between Jimmy and me. Never could be."

Kid scoffed derisively, causing Lou to reach out and grab his collar, jerk him around to look at her.

"Lookee here, Kid. Jimmy's been a good friend to me, and I ain't denyin' I've leaned on him a bit since … well, since you and I went our separate ways. 'Course I love him." Seeing pain flash across his face, she continued hurriedly, "I love him like a brother, like I love Ike and Buck and Cody and Noah. But not the way I lo-" She stopped herself just in time, grateful for the dim light that would keep Kid from seeing her flush scarlet. "Not the way a woman feels for the man she wants to spend her life with," she amended in a shaky voice.

"I know Jimmy wants you," Kid said in a low voice.

"Wantin' ain't the same as gettin'."

Kid grunted. "Don't I know it," he muttered.

His words sparked something in Lou. She jumped to her feet and started pacing back and forth beside the fire, trying to hold in her temper. It was a lost cause. "You sure do feel sorry for yourself, Kid," she spat. "I don't recall you bein' so all-fired broken up when you started courtin' that schoolmarm not a week after we parted!"

"Samantha never meant anything to me," Kid fired back.

"She meant enough for you to put your life on the line for her!"

Kid shook his head. "I reckon that was more about how much value I put on _my_ life at that moment than how I felt about her."

"Are you sayin' you were _trying_ to get yourself killed?" The thought made her stop pacing to stare at him.

"Naw, least not knowingly," he admitted, then grabbed up a handful pebbles and threw them fiercely into the darkness beyond the fire. "Shoot, I don't know what I was thinkin' at the time, Lou, I was so low down and miserable."

His voice was ragged with remembered anguish, but Lou was still hot. "You didn't seem that torn up to me. Sparkin' with that lady right in front of my eyes, tellin' the boys I was just a … a sweet, good-hearted girl who didn't mean nothin' serious to ya." Lou cursed the quaver that crept into her voice.

Kid made a move like he wanted to get up and go to her, but restrained himself. "You musta known that was just blowin' smoke," he said. "I didn't want the boys pityin' me 'cause you didn't want me."

Lou wondered whether she's be able to find her way out of the Badlands if she wrung Kid's neck. "I never said I didn't want you!" she thundered. "I said I wasn't ready to marry ya. That ain't the same thing. And you didn't have to go out of your way to break my heart by steppin' out with the teacher lady. It shattered the minute you turned away from me that day in the barn."

"You turned _me_ down. I – I … It seemed like you didn't love me, Lou."

Lou sank down to the ground, her anger spent and replaced by a deep sorrow. How had something that started out so perfect gotten so mixed up?

"Do you think I would have done what we did in Redfern, and after, if I didn't?" she whispered. "Is that the kind of gal you think I am?"

"'Course not, Lou! I couldn't-"

"I'd never even kissed a boy 'afore you, much less …" she trailed off. "Never wanted to be so close with anybody else, 'afore or since."

"I believe you, Lou. And you know that night was special for me, too. It's just that after Redfern, it seemed like you were losing interest in me. Gettin' distant. I didn't know what to do, so I-"

"Ran off, like a dog with its tail between its legs," Lou finished for him. "I never knew you were such a coward, Kid."

Kid shrugged miserably. "I suppose not really knowin' each other is how we got here."

Lou turned away abruptly. "We aren't getting anywhere chasing our tails and talking this to death," she said in a sort of muffled tone. "You said you'd take first watch. I'm going to bed." She moved to the bedroll and lay down, her back to Kid so he couldn't see the tears that coursed silently down her cheeks for a long time before sleep finally claimed her.


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Lou noticed as she ascended slowly from sleep into wakefulness was how hard the ground was. She fumbled at her thin blanket, trying to pull it more fully over her to shield her eyes from the morning light.

Morning light?

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, blinking and cursing. "Shoot! Kid, it's morning!" She looked around frantically, but her traveling companion was nowhere to be seen. "Kid? Kid, where are ya?" Lou shouted, scrambling to her feet. Lightning was still tethered where they'd left him last night and Lou noticed that he had been saddled and was contentedly munching on the scrub grass at his feet. But where was the Kid?

"Kid!" she called again, trying to tamp down the panic that welled up in her belly. He wouldn't have gone off on foot, leaving her behind, would he? She started to scramble up the nearest stone hillock, hoping to get a view of her surroundings, when Kid appeared around the corner of the very monolith she was about to scale.

"Mornin'," he said casually.

Suddenly furious, Lou ran at him, pushing her hands flat against his chest with all the force she could muster. Startled, he stumbled backward and fell on his backside in the dirt. "Hey!" he growled. "What's that for?"

"For not waking me up for my shift on watch! For doin' all the work getting ready to ride this morning! For disappearin' and makin' me think you were lost or run off or taken by a mountain lion in the night – or –" She was babbling and close to tears, and that made her even angrier. She turned away from him and stalked toward the cooling embers of last night's fire, swearing and kicking at the dirt so viciously that Lightning shied a little and whinnied.

"What are you so riled up about?" Kid said, following after her. "I thought you needed the rest, and as for wanderin' off … well, a man's got to attend to the needs of nature, don't he?"

Lou looked over her shoulder and saw he had blushed at that admission. Despite the often primitive conditions they faced on the trail, he really was such a proper – almost prudish - gentleman about such things. Any other time it might have made her laugh, but not today. Instead, she turned on her heel and marched back to him. He flinched a little at her approach, as if expecting her to push him again, and that did make her chuckle, but only on the inside where he couldn't see it. It tickled her to think little Louise McCloud, not 100 lbs. soaking wet, could put the fear of God in this big cowboy. She wasn't about to dissuade him of the notion now.

Coming to a halt mere inches from him, Lou squinted up into his face, trying to look as fierce as she could muster, and poked him in the chest. "Damn it all, Kid! Ain't you learned nothin' from us breaking up over this very thing?"

He blinked down at her, his brow furrowing at the mention of their separation. "How can you say I was crowdin' you, Lou? I didn't even say a word to ya, and you come at me like a banshee!"

"I'm not talkin' about the crowdin'. Well, not exactly anyway. It's this stubborn determination you have to take care of everything, including me. We was supposed to share the watch duty, and instead you stayed up all night. Now you'll be so tired, you won't be good for nothin' if we run into trouble."

"But you were up most of the night before, keepin' and eye on _me_ while I was sleepin' off my drunk," Kid argued, turning even redder at the memory of his booze-soaked misadventure. "Seemed only right to return the favor."

Lou threw up her hands in defeat. "But don't you see, Kid? That wasn't your choice to make! Maybe if we'd talked about it last night, and you'd put it that way, I woulda agreed." At Kid's skeptical look, she continued, "Well, no I wouldn't have, because it's stupid, but at least I wouldn't feel like you're going around me."

Kid's expression had turned progressively darker as she spoke, and now he turned away and started walking toward Lightning.

"Wait a second! We ain't done talkin'!" Lou snapped, chasing after him.

"Seems to me, only one of us is talkin," he groused, turning to face her again. "I jest have to listen to you squawk at me, like usual."

"What are you tryin' to say, Kid?"

"Nothin'. Come on, let's get goin'."

Lou stood where she was, crossing her arms across her chest. "I ain't goin' nowhere until you tell me what you meant by that."

"Okay! All right, then!" he growled and began pacing in front of her like a caged bear. "You're always talkin' about everything I do wrong. Overprotectin' ya. Makin' your decisions for ya. Hell, it seems like there's no way to win this shootin' match. No matter which way I aim, it ain't gonna be the right direction as far as you're concerned."

Stunned by his uncharacteristic outburst, Lou just watched him stomp back and forth.

"Maybe I don't know just what to do or how to act around ya, Lou. It ain't like I have a whole lot of experience in these matters. All I know to do is what I feel. And what I feel is, I want to do for you. If you need help, I want to help ya. If you're tired, I want to give ya a chance to rest. If you're scared or mad or sick or cryin' over something that makes you sad, I-I just cain't stand by and do nothin'." He stopped, out of breath. After a few seconds, he looked at her, his blue eyes clouded with sadness. "'Cept I got no right to do them things, like you say. I'm not your sweetheart no more, or even your friend, I guess."

Those last words stung Louise. "'Course you're my friend, Kid. More, even. My brother."

"Sorry, Lou. Truth is, I cain't be just your friend, leastwise not yet. And I _sure_ don't want to be your brother. What I want – _wanted_ – was to be your man, to ride by your side. Knowin' that wasn't possible, I needed to get away from you and see if my heart could ever get over ya. But I can't even do that right, because here you are, tellin' me how I've gone off the trail again." Kid closed his mouth and crossed his own arms to match Lou's defiant stance.

"And that, by the way, wasn't _my_ choice," he concluded darkly.

"I suppose you'd rather I'd just left you for that goon in the bar to kill ya," Lou muttered, trying to maintain her tough demeanor. But she found she was trembling and a sick feeling was growing in the pit of her stomach. She'd hurt him; that she already knew, and regretted. But to hear him say he couldn't even stand to be around her any more … She swallowed hard.

"We've come this far, and I still want to get Katy back from them bad men," Lou said slowly. "So I'm bound and determined to keep ridin' on. And once we've got what we come for, you and Katy can go your way, and me and Lightnin' will go ours. You won't ever have to lay eyes on me again."

Kid's face looked as desolate as Lou felt, but he only nodded dumbly.

"All right. That's settled then," Lou said, trying to sound indifferent. "If you'll excuse me, I have to … answer a call of my own. Then we'd better get ridin'. Sooner we get to the Hills, the sooner all this will be over."

A few moments later, when Lou returned to their camp, she found Kid standing next to Lightning, chewing thoughtfully on one stick of jerky and holding another in his fist. She expected him to offer her that one, but he made no move to do so. She dug into the saddlebag and got her own. Holding it between her teeth, she clambered onto Lightning's back.

"You comin'?"

Kid stuffed his remaining jerky stick into his mouth, tied his kerchief around his head to protect it from the sun, and climbed up behind Lou.

"Which way?" she asked.

He gestured. "North, but we won't get there as the crow flies. It's like to be a long day."

Lou nodded and tugged gently on the reins in her hand. "Gee up, boy."

* * *

Kid was right; it was a long – and mostly silent– day. The sun beat down on the dry canyons they wound through, making the air feel like the inside of a furnace. The rocky ground made Lightning's gait uncertain and Lou didn't dare push him to more than a leisurely pace. Lou had never been to this part of the country, and the weird appearance of the striated, lifeless rock formations that rose all around them both fascinated and scared her a little. Bad lands, indeed.

Aside from occasional tufts of scrub nestled into the rubble, the land was barren of vegetation. There wasn't a sign of water, and by midday Lou began to worry a bit about Lightning, not to mention herself and Kid, becoming dangerously dehydrated. Lou sipped judiciously at the canteen throughout the morning, handing it back to Kid after every drink. Though he wet his lips, she had a feeling he wasn't drinking his share. But she was too hot and tired to call him out on it; even when he was angry with her, Kid just couldn't help but look out for her wellbeing first. It was endearing and infuriating at the same time. That was just Kid. She'd either have to learn to live with it, or …

But she _wouldn't_ have to learn to live with it. The morning's dust-up had made that clear once and for all.

Blinking back the tears that threatened again – when had she become such a crybaby? – Lou squinted into the cloudless sky above them. In the distance, a trio of turkey buzzards were circling. A sure sign that something nearby had died, or was dying. Lou quashed a wild impulse to pull out her gun and shoot the buzzards out of the sky. They didn't have ammunition to waste.

"Tell me again why you thought taking a job that took you through this godforsaken territory was a good idea?" she grumbled.

Kid didn't answer right away. After a minute, he said simply, "Fer the money."

"You was already makin' good money riding for the Express, if you hadn't thrown it away," Lou retorted. "I still can't understand what happened, Kid. Why would you take chances that got you fired?"

"Russell, Majors and Waddell pay a bonus for every hour a rider shaves off the usual time. I aimed to get me some of that extra pay."

Lou snorted. "Good plan, except I hear your pay packet declines quite a bit after you're dead."

He didn't answer, so she chewed on his previous words a while. "I don't see why you're so all-fired eager to get rich all of a sudden," she finally blurted. "You've got time to get your stake together to buy that ranch you're wantin'."

"Ain't gonna be no ranch."

Lou turned in the saddle to stare at him. "What're you talkin' about? Ever since I've known ya, you've been saving every dime toward your own place."

He shrugged and turned his face away from hers, making a show of studying the dry creekbed they were passing over. "That was before."

"Before what?" she demanded, though in her heart she already knew.

His answer was barely audible. "A dream ain't worth nothin' without someone to share it with."

What could Lou say to that? Maybe that her own hopes for the future had been crushed the same as his that day in the barn, when she said no and he turned away. Or she could tell him she still loved him, still wanted him, would give anything to get back what they had. But neither of those things would make a difference; what's done is done, as the sisters at the orphanage used to tell her when she'd cry for her dead ma at night. So instead, Lou asked, "Why are you so crazy to earn money, then?"

"I have my reasons," Kid replied curtly.

"Such as?" Lou prodded, knowing she was provoking him but unable to keep her peace.

"Dang it, Lou! Cain't you let it go? What I do and why I do it is none of your bus- Hey!"

Neither Kid nor Lou had seen the rattler coiled up on a flat rock – but Lightning did, just before the snake struck out, narrowly missing the horse's foreleg. The black stallion reared back, dumping Kid off his back before the horse began bucking in terror. It bolted away from the snake, running wild as Lou pulled frantically on the reins, trying to calm him. In his heedless flight, Lightning tried to climb a slope covered in loose shale. The ground slid away under his hooves and the horse stumbled. Lou felt herself thrown forward, her forehead striking the saddle horn, then violently to one side as Lightning fell. The last thing Lou heard before she hit the ground hard was Kid's frantic shout behind her.


	7. Chapter 7

This was familiar, Lou thought as she swam back to consciousness. She was laying on the ground, and strong arms were wrapped around her. The sensation provoked a vivid memory of another time, giggling as Kid tickled her in retaliation for pretending to be hurt from a fall. That time, she'd looked up into his blue eyes and stopped giggling. His gaze was intense, his eyes darkened by some powerful emotion as he pulled off his hat and, after a quick look around to make sure they were truly alone, ducked his face down to kiss her.

It had been so different from the sweet, almost tentative kisses they'd shared before. Lou felt Kid's passion as he pressed her to him, the hard planes of his body flush against her softer curves. Lou felt she was melting into him, her blood flashing like quicksilver through her body, heated to boiling by an unfamiliar fire at her core. She'd wrapped her arms around his neck, seeking even greater contact as the kiss deepened and deepened until she lost all sense of where, even _who_ she was. There was only need, a ravening hunger for something she had no name for.

Lou gasped, her eyes flying open to focus on Kid's face hovering over hers, his eyes wide now with fear, not desire. His hands were on her arms, shaking her, and as the roaring in her ears subsided, she became aware that he was calling her name. "Lou! Louise! Louise!" Heaving in a deep breath, then coughing the dust out of her lungs, Lou hoisted herself onto her elbows. "I-I'm okay," she wheezed. "Just got the wind knocked out of me is all."

Kid let go of her abruptly and sat back on his haunches as Lou started slapping the dirt off her arms and legs. Suddenly she remembered: "Lightning! Is he all right?" She looked around and was relieved to see her beloved horse standing some distance away, shifting his weight uneasily and chuffing.

"I thought maybe he rolled over on you," Kid said, and there was a tremor in his voice.

"Naw, I've known how to roll away from a falling horse since I was 11 years old," Lou said, more robustly than she felt. She started to get up, but was swept by a wave of dizziness. Kid was instantly on his knees beside her, one arm around her shoulders, gently helping her to her feet. Lou found she was trembling as he led her over to a flat rock and gently sat her down.

"I don't think we should try to go any further today," Kid said. "Give you a chance to get your breath back."

"Cain't," Lou protested. "We're near out of water. Even if we can stand it, Lightning needs something to drink and a place to graze."

"I don't think water's going to be a problem much longer," Kid said, looking skyward. Following his gaze, Lou saw that a bank or dark, roiling thunderheads had rolled over – one of the swift-moving storms these parts were known for.

"Do you think you can move?" Kid asked now, casting another worried glance up. "I think we'd better find some place to shelter, and on higher ground. It's been rainin' in the upland for a while, and these canyons can flash flood faster than a horse can run."

Lou nodded, and Kid took her arm and helped her stand again. They hurried toward Lightning, who was increasingly restive and Lou was half afraid he'd bolt before they reached him. "Go on and catch his head," Lou urged. She'd discovered, once she was one her feet, that she'd sustained some injury after all to her right ankle. It was beginning to hurt something fierce.

Kid looked like he was going to argue, but clamped his mouth shut and nodded, then sprinted toward the horse. He reached Lightning just as a jagged bolt of electricity cut through the air over their heads, followed almost immediately by a shattering clap of thunder. Kid grabbed Lightning's bridle and started tugging the unwilling horse back toward its mistress, who was still hobbling slowly up the slope toward them. The wind had kicked up and Lou felt the first fat drops of rain slap her face. In an instant the sprinkles became a torrential downpour, and the air around them had darkened so it seemed like night had fallen.

"Lou!" Kid called, his strong voice whipped away by the wind. She could see him and Lightning faintly through the sheets of rain. The lightning and thunder were almost continuous now and above the sound of the wind and thunder and slanting rain, Lou was barely aware of a low rumble. Kid heard it, too, and hoisted himself onto Lightning's back. Lou saw him dig his knees into the horse's side, urging him forward at the same time the rumble behind Lou became a roar. She turned to see a wall of water taller than herself hurtling through the narrow gully directly toward her. Shocked motionless by the sight, Lou opened her mouth to scream just as she felt something coil around her torso and yank her sharply upward. She suddenly found herself laying across the saddle in front of Kid, who was hollering at Lightning and slapping him with the reins. In a blind panic, the horse lurched forward and up, scrambling over boulders and rubble in a frantic race to escape the canyon.

Muddy rivulets ran between Lightning's legs, sending pebbles skittering down the slow under the horse's hooves as Kid shouted into his laid-back ears, urging him faster. Behind them, the churning torrent bucketed through the canyon, rising hard on the heels of the fleeing trio. From her position slung over the horse's back, Lou watched the flood swirl around Lightning's fetlocks, dragging at the animal with all the brutal force of nature. She felt the horse falter, half stumble, and the water foamed up over his hocks. "Come on, boy! Come on!" Kid hollered into the wind. He bent forward, his chest pinning Lou into the saddle as he kept up a steady stream of encouragement to Lightning. For just a second, Lou felt the horse pause and sway back slightly on his haunches. Then, suddenly, Lightning catapulted forward – up, up and over the lip of the ravine, beyond the reach of the flood.

Though they'd escaped the most immediate danger, Kid didn't pull back on Lightning. Cruelly jostled as the horse galloped over uneven ground, Lou was finding it increasingly hard to catch her breath. For an agonizing few moments, she lost sense of what was happening as she slipped toward unconsciousness. Then she felt herself being hauled off Lightning's back and realized they had stopped. Then Kid was carrying her in his arms, and she knew he was saying something, but her head was too fuzzy yet to make it out. A minute more and Kid set her down on hard – but blessedly dry – ground. As Lou struggled to get her bearings, Kid left her and soon returned, leading Lightning. By this time, Lou had revived enough to see they were in a hollowed-out crevice in a cliff wall. It wasn't really large enough to be called a cave, but it was well sheltered from the tempest and just tall enough for Lightning to stand.

Still breathing hard, Lou leaned against the back wall of their shelter and wrapped her arms around her knees, watching as Kid deftly unhooked the saddlebag from Lightning and pulled their meal kit out of it. Opening it up, he laid both halves of the tin dish just outside the entrance where they could catch the rain. Then he made his way back to Louise and squatted beside her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded and managed a weak "Mmm-hmmm" through chattering teeth. Soaked to the skin by the cold rain, she was now shivering uncontrollably. Kid looked around the empty space and frowned. "There's nothin' in here to make a fire with," he muttered.

"It-it-it's o-o-kay," Lou stuttered, "I-I-I'll be fine in a little wh-wh-while."

Kid positively scowled at her. "No, it ain't okay," he grunted. "You look like a drowned rat, Lou." His calloused thumb gently brushed away a dripping strand of Lou's brown hair that was plastered to her cheek. "You'll catch your death if we don't get you warmed up in a hurry."

His gaze drifted to Lightning and the sodden bedroll still strapped behind the saddle. "That's no good." He turned back to Lou. "Can you get them wet things off yourself, or are you going to need help?"

"What?" Lou managed to gasp. Kid was fiddling with the ties at the neck of his buckskin tunic. "I ain't takin' my clothes off, Kid."

He shot her an exasperated look. "Ya got to. This ain't no time for modesty, Lou. You'll never warm up settin' in them soaked duds."

Lou pursed her lips, folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I-I don't ca-ca-care how cold I am. I ain't gonna di-di-display myself in the altogether like La-la-lady Godiva."

"Don't be stupid. That ain't what I'm suggestin'." Kid tugged the tunic over his head and held it out to her. "You can wear this."

"Who you ca-callin' stupid?" Lou muttered, blushing a little at the sight of Kid's bare torso. Despite her protestations, she reached a shaking hand to accept the offered garment. "Wh-what about you?"

"I'm mostly dry. These buckskins are oiled on the inside – practically waterproof."

Lou nodded. "Okay, then." Her eyes narrowed at him. "Turn around."

Kid rolled his eyes, but obediently turned his back. Lou struggled to pull off her boots and get out of her clothes, cold-numbed fingers fumbling over buckles, buttons and ties. She grunted in frustration as she tried to peel down her wet dungarees.

"Need some help?" Kid hadn't turned around, but she could hear the grin in his voice.

"I certainly do not!" A few muffled curses later, Lou was ready for inspection. "You can turn around now."

He did, and gave her an approving nod. "Feel better?"

She shrugged diffidently, not wanting to admit how chilled she really had been. "I guess." In fact, the shirt was indeed dry – on the inside, at least – and well-warmed by Kid's body heat. It smelled of wet animal hide and Kid. Already Lou felt a wonderful, cozy feeling soaking into her bones. "Thank you, Kid," she said, wanting to know she really was grateful for his sacrifice. "But what about you? Now _you're_ gonna freeze."

"Naw. Unlike you, I carry enough meat on my bones to see me through in situations like this," he answered gallantly. "'Sides, it appears to be clearing up already." Even as he spoke, the downpour lessened to a light rain, then ceased altogether. Brilliant rays of sunshine suddenly lit the ground outside the entrance to their little shelter, reflecting off puddles of water standing in every low spot.

"Well, that sure blew over in a hurry," Lou said, making a move to get to her feet. "I guess we can get goin' again."

"Hold up a minute. We ain't had nothin' to eat since breakfast, and you don't really want to climb back into them wet clothes, do ya?" Kid countered. "Why don't I turn Lightning out to lap at some of them puddles, and I'll lay out your things and the bedroll on the rocks to dry in the sun. He'd already scooped up the sodden pile of clothes and led Lightning outside before Lou had a chance to protest. It raised her hackles a little that he was just taking charge and making all the decisions, like he always seemed to. But she also had to admit he was right, dang him! She was powerful hungry, her head ached a little from her earlier fall and the idea of exchanging Kid's comfy tunic for her own wet clothes held little appeal.

With Kid and Lightning out of sight, Lou got up. She winced when she put weight on her hurt ankle, which was starting to swell. She could tell it wasn't broken, but it would hurt like the devil in the morning. She felt rather exposed with her bare legs hanging out from under Kid's tunic, though it was large enough to fall to her mid-thigh. She limped over and collected the tin dishes, filled to the brim with rainwater, and poured them into the canteen. Then she dug out some jerky and biscuits – the trail rider's reliable, if monotonous staples – and portioned them out between the two dishes. By the time she finished, it occurred to her that Kid should have been back already. A little prick of unease went through her, as it always did when she didn't know where he was. She went to the mouth of the shelter and looked out. But neither Kid nor Lightning was in view. Cursing under her breath, Lou struggled to pull on her boots and was about to go out after them when Kid's familiar silhouette appeared against the bright sunlight.

As he stepped inside, Lou saw he was carrying an armful of brush. His eyebrows raised when he saw her. "That makes quite a stylish costume," he observed, eyeing her bare knees above the tops of her boots and how the rest of her was practically swallowed up by his large shirt. "You might wear that to the next dance in town. I bet you'd turn some heads."

"Very funny," Lou said crossly to hide her embarrassment. She nodded toward the bundle in his arms. "What's that?"

"I found this blown to the back of an underhang. Dry as a bone. They'll burn just fine."

"Is that what took you so long, or were you answering another call?" Lou smirked.

"That seems a might personal, don't you think?" he answered neutrally. "As a matter of fact, I did a little scout-around of the area. Found a nice patch of scrub grass close by that Lightning is enjoying right now. And then I climbed on top of this big 'ol rock we're standing under."

"You climbed up a wet cliff without anybody there to see if ya fell on her head?" Lou admonished, a sudden vision of his broken body at the bottom of a cliff flashing through her mind.

"Aw, it's an easy climb. And I found out that rattlesnake did us a favor."

"Tell that to my sore ankle." Grimacing, Lou rotated her left foot, which was beginning to throb.

Kid's brow furrowed a little. He made a move to take a closer look, but she waved him off. "Never mind. What do you mean about that snake doing us a favor?"

"From up top there, I got a good look for miles around. Turns out we were headed the wrong direction altogether, deeper into the Badlands, when that snake persuaded us to change our route." He accepted the plate Lou handed him and bit off a chaw of jerky. "Now we're only a mile or two from the end of this hellhole, if we head that way," He waved an arm in the general direction he meant.

"Good," Lou said around a mouthful of biscuit. "Soon as we finish our grub, we can repack Lightning and get going again."

"Actually, I was gonna suggest we stop here for the night."

"Why? There's plenty of daylight left," Lou observed. "And even if my clothes are still damp, they'll dry soon enough in the sun while we ride."

"I've been this way before, Lou. It's still a good day's ride across open grassland between here and the Hills – and that's smack dab in the middle of Sioux territory. I think we'd be safer to spend the night here, then start fresh early tomorrow and make a dash for it."

Lou sighed, but she could see the sense of his plan. She felt torn, half wanting to get to the Hills and finish what they'd come for, and half fearing what that confrontation might bring. And even if they came out of it unscathed, the end of this trail also meant the end of the road for Kid and her. Suddenly, spending another night with him seemed like a very good idea.


	8. Chapter 8

The two riders spent the rest of the afternoon fixing up a regular little camp around their rocky shelter. Hobbled by her hurt ankle, Lou concentrated on preparing a hot meal – their first since the hearty breakfast they'd had before leaving Douglas. She used her pocket knife to split open a good handful of beans so they would soften faster when she set them to soak in the small kettle she carried in her saddlebag.

Kid had fetched Lightning back and then done some more scouting around. Not far from their encampment he discovered – wonder of wonders – a small, clear stream. He filled their two-cup coffee pot and Lou dumped a handful of coffee into it, then set it to boil on the fire Kid built just outside the shelter. He'd scavenged more dry brush, and the hot sun and a stiff breeze was quickly drying out even the vegetation that had been doused. Lou's clothes and the bedroll had also dried and Kid brought them back for her to put on again. She felt more comfortable in her own, well-fitted shirt and pants … but felt a little sorry to hand back Kid's tunic. Somehow wearing it had made her feel close to him in a way she hadn't for a long time.

Sitting cross-legged at the mouth of their shelter, Lou watched the pyramidal peaks around them fade from the brilliant red, brown and gold stripes they'd taken on when wet to their usual duller hues. They reminded her of colorful Indian blankets she'd seen.

She also watched the Kid as he worked. With the luxury of time, he constructed their fire pit with care, gathering round and flat rocks. The flat ones, heated by the surrounding flames, would serve as the stovetop for Lou's bean stew; the round ones he arranged around the perimeter.

There was little conversation as they performed their respective tasks. Now that the excitement was over, the remnants of the morning's argument settled back between them. Lou was still trying to puzzle out what was going on with her former lover and best friend. He just wasn't acting like himself! Perhaps it was only, as he'd said before, that he no longer knew who "himself" was. She hated the thought that she was responsible for that. Yet despite his attempts to be cool and distant from her, Kid just couldn't help being helpful and solicitous toward the girl who'd broken his heart. Lou guessed he just didn't have it in him to be callous, especially to a lady. It made her heart ache even as it brought a smile to her face.

She decided it was time to start assembling her main dish. It would be better if the beans had soaked overnight, but they'd be tolerable if she boiled them long enough. As she got up to fetch a green onion from her pack (Teaspoon insisted all the riders carry them, for "health reasons"), Lou hissed when she accidently put her weight down on her injured ankle. Instantly, Kid whirled around from where he was squatting beside the fire.

"What's wrong?" he demanded, hurrying over to her.

"It's nothin'. Just this ankle needs to be babied a bit," Lou answered.

"Sit down," Kid ordered. "What do you need? I'll get it."

"I can manage," Lou protested. "You don't need to worry about me."

A brief look of pain flashed over his handsome features, which then hardened. "Maybe it's not on your account I'm worryin'. You won't be much use in a fight against those bandits if you're stowed up on a bum leg."

Lou bit back a retort; there was no use opening up that can of beans again, and she was so tired of fighting with Kid. Instead, she settled back down on the ground and set the pot of beans in front of her. "Couldja get me a green onion out of the saddlebag, then? And the pouch with the spices and such."

Kid fetched the items she requested. As he bent to set them by her, his glance was drawn to her leg, which she had stretched out in front of her. "That's really swollen," he observed.

She shrugged. "Ain't fatal."

Kid pursed his lips and walked out of the shelter without another word. Lou started cutting the onion into chunks that she dropped into the pot with the beans. A moment later, Kid came back in. He was holding his sopping-wet kerchief in one hand and his dinner plate, full of water, in the other. She looked up as he knelt next to her and began gently to wrap the cloth around her ankle. It was icy cold from the stream water he'd dunked it in, and it felt wonderful on her throbbing injury. "This should help take the swelling down some," he said, concentrating on his task. "Keep it nice and wet from the water in the dish." He spared her a glance then, and his eyes immediately widened. "Lou! Are you cryin'?"

She blinked rapidly and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "It's just these onions, is all," she mumbled. Why did he have to be so sweet?

He nodded and got to his feet. "I'll go and give Lightning a good once-over. This rocky ground is hard on a horse's hooves." He'd made it nearly outside when Lou found the courage to call after him.

"Thank you, Kid." She saw his shoulders tense, but he didn't turn around.

Lou would never win a prize for her cooking, but the bean stew over biscuits she produced for their dinner was fair, and both riders were so starved for something other than jerky and dry biscuits that it seemed like manna from heaven. She had sliced up a few strips of the leathery meat to boil with the beans and added just a bit of the precious salt, pepper and sugar she carried in her pack. The stew even softened up the hard biscuits. The meal, washed down with strong coffee, left both Kid and Lou feeling full and contented.

"I'll go wash out the gear before it gets too dark," Kid said. "No sense attracting critters with our leftovers." Lou watched him scamper off in the rapidly dimming light. She hated feeling so helpless and wished there was something she could do, even with her bum ankle, to pull her own weight. The swelling had gone down considerably under the cold-water wrap, and Lou told herself she'd be in shape to do what needed to be done when she and Kid finally found the thieves who had Katy. Whatever happened, she'd be right beside Kid. That much, she could do.

A sound of pebbles skittering down the rocks alerted her to Kid's return. He had the clean dishes tucked under an arm and a big grin on his face. He set the load down next to the fire. "Looks like there's another storm settlin' over the Hills, but it's moving away from us," he said excitedly. "Streaks of lightning making the whole horizon light up. It's amazing! You gotta see this, Lou!"

"Wish I could."

Kid's eyes were shining. "You're gonna."

"How? Seems like a long ways to crawl, Kid."

He bent suddenly and grabbed both her hands, pulling her to her feet. "No need to crawl. I'm going to carry ya."

"What? You cain't possibly."

"Sure I can. Pig-a-back!"

His enthusiasm was infectious. Lou hadn't ridden on somebody's back since she was a little girl, before her father abandoned them … but she wouldn't think about that now. It seemed crazy, probably dangerous, to do what Kid was suggesting. But that had never stopped them before.

"All right!"

Kid turned his back to her. "Can ya hop on?"

In answer, she used her good leg to push off and jumped onto him, flinging her arms around his neck as she wound her legs around his waist. She felt his strong hands move under her thighs to hold her in place. Then he was jogging up the slope with Lou on his back. Though the way was fairly steep, and dusk was making the way hard to see, Kid moved with confidence and ease. Lou's sleight build seemed not to burden him at all; months of hard labor on the ranch had toned his physique to solid muscle. Though it was a bumpy ride, Lou didn't feel at all nervous as they climbed up and up – she trusted Kid to keep her safe.

In the few minutes it took them to reach the top, it had become quite dark. At the summit, Lou felt Kid's grip on her legs loosen, and she slid off his back, careful to land with her weight on her good leg. Though the light was dim, she could see they were on a wide stone slab – the top of the rock formation, worn flat and scoured clean of dirt and debris by eons of wind and weather. Kid took Lou's hands to support her as she lowered herself gently to a sitting position. To her surprise, the rock beneath her felt quite warm, having absorbed the heat of the day after the afternoon rainstorm. Lou looked around as Kid took his place beside her. The night was still warm, the air clear and touched by just a slight breeze. Above them, the sky had darkened to a tapestry of black velvet spangled with an infinity of brilliant points of light. It was breathtaking.

"Look over there," Kid whispered, and her gaze followed the dark silhouette of his arm pointing toward the west. From this height Lou could see the edge of the Badlands not far away, then a vast stretch of flat prairie that glowed a silvery gray in the starlight. And beyond that, on the horizon, an uneven band of black marked the perimeter between earth and sky. Brilliant flashes of light danced over the Black Hills, the glow of a lightning storm that was raging over them. It reminded Lou of an Independence Day fireworks show she'd witnessed as a small child in St. Joe. In contrast to that display's ear-blasting booms that terrified little Louise, she now heard only a distant, almost gentle rumble of thunder echoing across the plain.

The riders watched the spectacle in silence. As Kid had surmised, the storm was moving further off to the west, away from them, and gradually the lights and murmur of the far-off tempest faded away.

"That was amazing," Lou breathed at last. "Thank you for helping me see it."

The dark shadow beside her shrugged. "I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity." He sighed. "Guess we'd better start back down. It'll be a sight more difficult than coming up, now that it's dark."

She laid a hand on his sleeve. "Can we stay a little longer? It's already as dark as it's going to get. Seems like a few more minutes won't make much difference." She leaned back on her elbows. "I just want to look at this sky for a spell."

"I guess it can't hurt." Kid leaned back as well and tucked his arms under his head. "They sure are pretty. Seems like you could almost reach up and touch 'em."

Lou lifted one arm and strained upward. "Not quite," she smiled. "Looks like diamonds in the sky." She dropped her arm back and sighed. "I love it here."

They lay side by side in comfortable silence for some minutes. Gradually Lou became aware of a low sound coming from Kid. She cocked her ear and discovered to her surprise that he was quietly humming to himself.

"What's that tune?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh!" Kid answered, clearly embarrassed. "Nothin.' Just a song my ma used to sing at night. She had a pretty voice."

"I'd love to hear it. Wouldja sing it for me, Kid?"

He snorted. "Naw, I ain't no singer."

"Please? I don't 'spect you to be Jenny Lind, after all."

"That's a good thing, because I hear her voice is a lot higher than mine."

Lou nudged his shoulder. "Come on, Kid."

It was too dark for her to see him roll his eyes, but she heard it in his exasperated sigh. "Well, I suppose you'll be doggin' me all night if I don't –"

"Yep."

He cleared his throat and began, first in a low tone, then gaining power as he was swept up by the lyrics and the memories they evoked. His voice was a clear, beautiful baritone. Lou would never have guessed it of him.

 _"_ _Black is the color of my true love's hair_

 _Her lips are like a rose so fair_

 _And the prettiest face and the neatest hands_

 _I love the grass whereon she stands_

 _She with the wondrous hair."_

Lou closed her eyes as she listened, picturing the woman who would have sung this old ballad to her small, blue-eyed boy as she rocked him.

 _"_ _Black, black, black_

 _Is the color of my true love's hair._

 _Alone, my life would be so bare._

 _I would sigh, I would weep,_

 _I would never fall asleep._

 _Oh, I do love my love and so well she knows_

 _I love the ground whereon she goes …"_


	9. Chapter 9

This is strange, Lou thought fuzzily. Her back side felt very cold, but her front side was warm … blissfully so. Cracking her eyes open a slit, she realized she was still lying on top of the rock formation. Sometime in the night she'd snuggled up to Kid – or he to her – and he was now lying on his side up against her, his right arm wrapped protectively around her waist, his left arm under her head for a pillow. It felt so sweet … so familiar.

Her leg was cramping up, so she couldn't help shifting a little. As she did, Kid's eyes slid open sleepily. Those blue eyes. That smile. "Hey," he whispered.

"Hey." She smiled back at him.

Then Kid awoke fully and his eyes flew open wide. "What the-" He jerked away from her so violently she thought he might roll over the edge. He scrambled to his feet, avoiding her gaze while brushing off his pants and tunic self-consciously. "Sorry," he mumbled, and Lou saw bright spots of pink had blossomed on his cheeks.

"Nothin' to be sorry for, Kid," Lou answered. "Guess we both fell asleep up here."

"Shouldn't have. You could've froze to death."

Lou sighed. Kid taking responsibility again. "Aw, it's not that cold," she said with deliberate lightness. "And I nodded off same as you. Luckily we found a way to stay warm enough, even if we were sleepin' at the time."

Kid blushed even deeper. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he looked down and toed the ground bashfully. It was so adorable that Lou thought her heart might burst. "I guess," Kid mumbled, then turned to scan the western sky.

Beyond the edge of the Badlands, the early morning sun slanted across the gently undulating grassland all the way to the horizon. The Black Hills were visible as a dark smudge at the farthest point of their vision. Squinting into the distance, Lou observed a dark, elongated blotch on the prairie. "What's that?" she asked.

"Buffalo."

Lou was amazed. "There's so many of them!" She'd seen the American bison before, of course; there were still pockets of them on the southern prairies over which she customarily rode her mail route. But these were becoming scarcer as the population of settlers increased.

"I talked to an old-timer once who claimed the herds used to stretch from horizon to horizon," Kid commented.

It sounded like one of Cody's crazy stories to Lou, but then again, things were changing so quickly in the west … even in the year she'd been riding for the Express, she'd seen settlement spreading like wildfire over the prairie. Talk was that the transcontinental telegraph would be completed yet this year. Lou could feel some empathy for the increasingly restive Indian tribes in this part of the country. It seemed like even the world Lou knew would soon be just a figment of history.

"We'll keep well clear of the herd," Kid was saying now. "There's bound to be Sioux on their trail." He gave the scene a final, calculating glance and then turned to Lou. "I guess we'd best get back down this rock. Lightning will be thinking we ran off on him." Then, remembering her injury, he asked, "How's the ankle?"

"Much better," Lou answered honestly. It was still sore, but the swelling had gone down and she found she could place her weight on it without too much discomfort. "Guess that cold water wrap did the trick."

"Can you make it down on your own, do you think? Or should I carry you?"

"I can make it, I think, if you stick close by me."

Kid nodded. "Let's get a move on, then. I'd like to reach the Hills before nightfall."

* * *

Though it was uncomfortably hot by mid-afternoon, Lou had to suppress a little shudder as she looked around her. They'd been riding for hours, heading toward the Black Hills that barely seemed to grow any larger on the horizon. The grassland over which they traveled was beautiful in a kind of desolate way. It was the most genuinely "wild" territory Lou had ever ridden through. Even though her Express routes took her over stretches of open prairie, she always had a trail to follow and the knowledge that a settlement lay ahead. She was never more than 10 miles from the next waystation, and often she met other travelers or passed homesteads along the way.

Today she was crossing stretches of land that had been seen by at most a handful of whites before her. If something were to happen to her and Kid, it was likely no one would ever know. Perhaps someday another lonely traveler would discover their bones bleaching in the sun like the skulls of bison and antelope they occasionally passed. It gave Lou a queer feeling in her chest to be so far from "civilization" and heading even further into the unknown with each clop of Lightning's hooves.

This land wasn't entirely barren of humans, of course. Several times during the day Kid pointed out signs of Indian encampments – the remains of cooking fires or circular areas of tamped down grass where teepees had stood in the recent past. Lou learned to distinguish those shallow depressions from the deeper "wallows" where the buffalo had rolled.

Of those great, shaggy beasts they saw nothing – and that was by design. Kid directed Lou to follow a route far from the area where they'd seen the vast herd the night before. They had also not seen any of the native people whose traces they viewed; Lou figured Kid was right about them following the trail of the buffalo herd. Nevertheless, she kept a sharp eye out for them. Despite her strong friendship with Buck and several other positive encounters with Native Americans (she'd be eternally grateful to the half-Hunkpapa warrior Curly for saving Kid's life) … the truth was, Lou was afraid of the people she had learned to call savages. She supposed it was something like the conflict Kid felt around Noah and Ulysses – when you're taught something, brought up with certain ideas and beliefs, it was hard to let go of them completely even in the face of powerful evidence to the contrary. It bothered Lou to hold such prejudices, and especially that Buck was aware of them; she tried her best to rise above them, just as Kid had reached out to their new brother Noah.

Suddenly Lou saw something ahead of Lightning that caused her to pull up on the reins. The horse came to a halt, shifting restlessly on his hooves.

"What is it?" Kid asked from his place behind her.

"I don't know … could there have been a fire?" In front of them, as far as the eye could see, the prairie was laid bare. Not a blade of grass stood, and the sod was torn up and scaped clean as if the blade of an immense plow had passed over it.

Lou nudged Lightning forward again, at a slow walk into the barren zone. It soon became apparent what caused it: every inch of ground was covered by hoof marks. They were passing over the "wake" of the massive herd of bison. Thousands upon thousands of the animals had grazed the prairie to ground level and churned up the ground under them.

"If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I never would have believed it," Lou whispered.

"Yeah," Kid agreed. "Guess that old-timer had it right after all." He tapped Lou lightly on the sleeve, then pointed at something in the distance. It was a ragged, squiggly line of green, and Lou thought she knew what it was.

"A river?"

"Looks like," Kid confirmed. "Let's head that way. I'm starved, and I reckon Lightning could use a rest."

Lou turned Lightning in the direction of the green squiggle and spurred the horse to a gallop. She was eager to reach the cool shelter of the trees. It was farther than it looked – the lack of visual cues on the prairie made judging distances hard – but half an hour later the riders finally put the golden-brown, sun-baked prairie behind them and entered the narrow band of lush green grass, shrubs and trees that flourished along the water's edge.

Guided by Lou to a spot where the bank wasn't too steep, Lightning stepped delicately to the edge of the river – just a broad creek, really – and began to drink even before Kid and Lou slipped off her back. As Lou had expected, it was a good 20 degrees cooler under the willows and aspens. "Aaaah!" she exclaimed, flopping down onto her back in the soft grass. "This feels heavenly." She got no answer from Kid, so she reluctantly raised her head to see what he was up to.

He had waded into the gently flowing current and was looking upstream, his gaze focused and appraising.

"No rest for the weary, I guess," Lou muttered as she got to her feet and went to join him. The water flowing around her boots was icy cold, and she longed to strip off her clothes, lie down and let the coolness wash over her. Instead, she stood beside Kid.

"Whatcha studyin' on so hard?"

"Just gettin' my bearings. I'm sure this is the creek me and the others followed right up into the Hills. If we stick close to it, it should lead us straight to them boys' camp, assumin' they headed back to where we found the placer gold to get more."

"How far?"

He gave her a sidelong glance. "We should be close by nightfall."

Lou felt her stomach clench. "What're we gonna do when we catch up with them fellas, Kid?" It had begun to dawn on her that they had been so occupied with finding the men who beat Kid and took Katy that they hadn't considered how they were going to get the Paint back when they did.

Kid shoved his hands in his pockets, a gesture Lou had come to recognize as a sign he was feeling anxious. "I s'pose we'll figure somethin' out when it comes down to it." He turned worried eyes back to the winding creekbed before them. "Come on. We'd better break out the grub and get ridin' again. There's still a long ways to go."


	10. Chapter 10

Under any other circumstance, it would have been a perfect day: riding Lightning through a cool, green bower with Kid snugged up behind her. But through that long afternoon, all Lou could think of was what would be waiting when they reached their destination – the end of her partnership with Kid, one way or another.

Progress seemed agonizingly slow, the creek being one of those winding types that twisted and turned and doubled back on itself until they couldn't tell which direction they were headed. But the terrain grew steadily steeper under Lightning's hooves, and it was clear they were leaving the flatland and entertaining the foothills of the fir-covered peaks the Indians called _Paha Sapa_.

In late afternoon they reached an impasse. Ahead of them a sheer stone cliff rose some 20 feet, the creek tumbling over it in a glistening torrent. Beneath the falls the creek widened into a small pool. Kid jumped down from Lightning, followed by Lou.

"Now what?" Lou asked, looking at the vertical barrier before them.

"I recognize this," Kid answered. "There's a game trail over that way." He gestured toward a copse of thick foliage to the left of the cliff. "It's steep, but you've handled worse."

"Okay." Lou started to remount Lightning, but Kid's hand on her arm stayed her.

"Once we reach the top, we'll be getting' pretty near to where I figure them boys is holed up. No more'n an hour's ride."

Lou gulped. So close! She glanced skyward, where already early evening shadows were gathering around the rugged crags, painting the dark pines an even blacker hue. These hills were well named. "You figure we kin sneak up on 'em in the dark?"

Kid shook his head. "Too dangerous. There's cliffs and ravines all over these hills, and I'm not so sure of the trail that I wouldn't lead us right over one of 'em." He gave Lightning an affectionate nose rub. "'Sides, I'd like to avoid a fight if we can. They'll likely be off to the sluice early in the morning, and if we're lucky we can stroll right into their camp while they're gone, grab Katy and the survey documents and be on our way before they even know we're here."

"So what do we do in the meantime?"

"Stay put 'til mornin'. Give Lightning a chance to cool off and rest up. Us, too." He offered her a wry smile. "Think you can put up with my company for one more night?"

One more night? Every night for the rest of her life wouldn't be half enough for Lou. But she couldn't say that. Instead, she shrugged as if it made no difference to her. "I reckon I can make do."

* * *

Once the decision was made to stop there for the night, the first thing on Lou's agenda was a shower – albeit a cold one – under that waterfall. She'd spent the better part of a week in the same clothes, riding over hot and dusty territory. And though the nature of her job had given Louise McCloud a high tolerance for dirt and stink, she was still a lady. She wanted to feel clean.

"You go ahead," Kid responded when she suggested it. "I'll head downstream a piece and gather some dead wood."

Lou swallowed a mouthful of disappointment. She hadn't really expected Kid to join her, but she couldn't help remembering a time when he gladly would have. She got her little loaf of lye soap out of the saddlebag and waited until Kid was out of sight before stripping out of her clothes and slipping into the frigid water. She couldn't help squealing a little when she ducked under the waterfall, wetting her head. The churning waters foamed around her as she used her lye soap to scrub her body and hair until she was sure she'd stripped away at least the top layer of grit. Then she drifted toward the calmer, deeper center of the pool. She lay back in the water, floating languidly as the swirling current from the waterfall turned her in lazy circles.

Closing her eyes, Lou thought back to another time, another isolated oasis like this one. How she'd gleefully tempted Kid to join her skinny-dipping, and how she'd howled with laughter when he nearly jumped in with his long johns on. As it was, the always-proper Kid only stripped down to the waist, diving in with his long john bottoms and even his boots still on. Lou smiled, recollecting how she'd coaxed him out of both bottoms and boots before bath time was over.

That last reminiscence made Lou wince a little now. She had to tease Kid into making love to her that day (though she didn't have to twist his arm very hard, she thought wryly). Still, his reluctance had bothered her then, and it haunted her now.

"It don't feel right," he'd said, looking around like he so often did to make sure they weren't being observed. Kid was ashamed to be with her, to be "doin' what we been doin'," as he so delicately put it.

It had stung even then. That had been the first time Kid proposed, wanting to make an "honest woman" of her. The first time she refused him. She'd treated the whole thing like a joke, and Kid had been content to be distracted by horseplay and kisses. Yet the incident had stayed with Lou, turning over in her mind during subsequent nights she and Kid shared a bedroll – and even more insistently in those longer, lonelier hours alone in her bunk after they'd broken up.

Kid had felt bad about being with her that way, and it made Lou feel bad for being the kind of girl who would let him. But overlaying all the shame and regret was that moment, there in the pond, when Kid had looked into her eyes and said, "I love you." He made it sound like a prayer, and the warm light in his eyes left no doubt that he meant it. In that breathless moment Lou had known true, complete happiness.

But it wouldn't last. In fact, it was about that time that Kid started acting possessive and controlling, trying to mold her into something she never could be: a proper lady like the Southern belles he'd known before. And though he still looked at her with those soft eyes, still told her he loved her, Lou knew it couldn't really be true. And, not a week after they broke up, his dalliance with the schoolteacher proved it.

Suddenly Lou felt a chill that wasn't related to the icy water around her. Solemnly she made her way to the shore and was back in her clothes by the time Kid reappeared with an armful of dead fall.

"That didn't take long," Kid commented cheerfully as he approached and set down his bundle. "As hot as it was today, I figured you'd be lollygagging in there half the night, and I'd have to set up camp with my hands over my eyes."

"There's work to be done," she replied tersely, tossing the soap to him. "I'll set up camp and get supper started while you take a dip." Before he could protest, she added, "Go on, now. You stink to high heaven."

He ducked his head at her tone and turned toward the water. Lou kicked herself mentally. Why did she always have to be so sharp with him? It wasn't his fault she wasn't the kind of girl he needed. Sighing, she set to work getting their camp squared away.

Lou was careful to keep her back to the water while she built their fire, though she had a powerful temptation to sneak a peek when she heard a splash, followed by a cry: "Hoo, boy! That's cold!"

In a very few minutes Lou had their fire burning briskly and had turned her mind to wondering what to fix for dinner. All of a sudden she heard a loud whoop from the direction of the pool, accompanied by a sound of something thrashing in the water. Lou spun around, ready to dive in and save Kid from whatever he was tussling with – but to her surprise, she saw only Kid, standing waist-deep. He had a huge grin on his face and his arms held high over his head. Each hand held one end of an enormous trout.

"What on earth?" Lou gasped.

"Dang thing was nibbling' on my toes," Kid explained, wading toward shore with his prize. "I just reached down and grabbed it." Lou pointedly averted her gaze from his water-logged long johns clinging to his body and his broad, naked chest and focused on the still wriggling fish.

"Madam, may I present you with … dinner!" Kid said triumphantly, dropping the fish at Lou's feet. Then he shook his head and ran his fingers through his longer-than-usual hair, sending a shower of water droplets on his petite traveling companion.

"Hey!" she objected.

"Sorry." Kid laughed in a way that didn't seem at all remorseful.

"Just for that …" Lou stepped to the water's edge and bent, cupping her hands to scoop up a splash of water right into Kid's face. Now it was her turn to laugh as he sputtered and blinked through the rivulets running into his eyes and mouth.

"Oh, you're gonna pay for that!" Kid said, lunging for her.

Still laughing, Lou danced out of his reach and scampered off. "Cain't catch me!" she sang, racing for cover behind Lightning's solid form.

"Don't you be so sure!" Kid hooted, hot on her heels. Lou squealed and dodged his attempt to catch her. She dashed under Lightning's head, moving fast and failing to notice that Kid had reversed his own direction and was coming around the horse's other side to intercept her.

"Oomph!" Lou ploughed straight into Kid's broad torso. Automatically his arms came around her to keep her on her feet. The two riders were laughing so hard they were practically gasping for breath, and Lou let her forehead drop onto the solid plane of Kid's shoulder, her palms flat against his chest. Gradually their laughter subsided and Lou became very aware of her proximity to a still-wet and half-naked Kid. Raising her eyes, she saw him looking down at her with eyes that were dark and smoldering. His arms tightened around her and she slid her own hands around his waist. Pressed close against him, Lou could feel his heart thundering against her trembling body. Seemingly of its own volition, Lou's graceful neck strained upward, her face tilting toward Kid's. His lips were slightly parted as he slanted his face toward hers, and Lou closed her eyes, feeling his warm breath on her lips …

Suddenly his arms were no longer around her. Lou snapped her eyes open to see Kid backing away, practically falling over his own feet in his haste to put distance between them. "I-I'm sorry," he stammered, looking down, and around and everywhere but at her. "I shouldn't have … I guess I … I mean …" Finally he gave up and mumbled, "I'd better go clean that fish."

Lou watched him grab up the trout and jog toward the creek. Her heart was still hammering in her chest, her blood running high with the aftereffects of their close encounter. "Oh, Kid," she said to herself. "What are we gonna do?"


	11. Chapter 11

As delicious as she knew the grilled trout must be after days of jerky and biscuits, Lou barely tasted it. The awkwardness between her and Kid was a bitter kind of sauce over their silent meal. Afterward, Lou rinsed out the dishes while Kid headed a ways upstream to bury the remains of the fish; they wanted no bears in camp. When he returned, Kid found the bedroll stretched out by the fire and Lou sitting, her knees drawn up to her chest, on a rock nearby.

"I'll take the first watch this time," she told him. He only nodded and went to lay down on the bedroll. Lou stared into the fire, lost in her own thoughts, until a heavy sigh from the man across from her prompted her to speak.

"What is it, Kid?"

"Nothin'." A moment's silence, then: "I just hope Katy's okay, is all."

"I'm sure she's fine. Them boys will know a fine horse when they see her. They'll take good care of her." Lou wasn't at all certain of that, but felt Kid needed to hear it.

A couple of minutes later, Kid spoke again. "Did I ever tell you how I come to git Katy?"

"Nope."

Kid let go a half-laugh, half-sigh. "By gettin' the tar beat out of me."

"This I gotta hear." Lou rested her chin on her knees and waited.

"I'd just come into St. Joe. I was on foot then – walked clear from Virginia, 'cept for a few rides I got in the back of somebody's wagon for a few miles here and there. I'm sure anybody who saw me figured there never was a sorrier excuse for a boy. I'm surprised they didn't run me off." Kid paused a minute.

"I was so broke down and hungry," he continued very softly. "There was a kind of fair goin' on, and I remember passing by a woman who had an apple stand. Them apples looked so good … I guess I hadn't eaten anything in a day or so ... I was sure tempted to nab one when she wasn't lookin', but …"

He didn't have to finish the thought; Lou knew that even half-starved, Kid's high ideals and unbending honesty wouldn't permit him to steal.

"Anyway, I come upon a stable, and thought maybe I would earn a few cents, or at least a hot meal, mucking out the stalls. So I went in and … there she was." Kid's voice had taken on a dreamy quality as he cast his mind back to that moment. "She was standing there, with a ray of sun from the loft window shinin' down on her, makin' her glow like she'd just come straight down from heaven. That's what it seemed like to me, anyway. I went over to get a closer look, but the stablemaster saw me and told me to git lost. I asked him how much he wanted for her, and he said $25."

Kid chuckled a little under his breath, but it wasn't a happy sound. "I know now that Katy is worth five or six times that. I think he just threw that figure out to get rid of me; he could see plain as day that I'd never laid my eyes on a $20 bill in my life, and likely never would. In fact, he told me just that." Kid's voice had taken on a slightly bitter edge.

A little ache bloomed in Lou's chest, imagining that raggedy, bone-tired boy wanting what the world said he didn't deserve.

"I was feeling pretty low then," Kid continued. "But then I remembered something I'd seen at the fair – a fella was offering $30 to any man who could stay in the ring with this fighter, a big Irishman."

Lou's heartbeat quickened a little, anticipating what was to come.

"The barker tried to talk me out of it – said I'd never survive it – but I sure wanted that horse. So I stepped into the ring they'd set up there, and let him come at me."

"What happened? Did you win?"

Now Kid _did_ laugh out loud. "Not hardly! But winnin' wasn't required. I just had to be standing on my feet after three minutes. I made sure of that before I stuck my neck out."

"But you were hurt."

She sensed his nod in the darkness across from her. "You better believe it. The truth of it is, when I saw that big man step into the room, I darn near chickened out. He must have been seven feet tall, and built like a steer."

"Kid!" Lou couldn't help gasping.

"He was tough as nails, too. You'd have thought maybe he'd take it a little easy on a scrawny young'en less than half his size, but he had no mercy. Knocked me flat on my a— … er, my backside."

"What did you do?"

"Got up, of course. Then he knocked me down again. And again. And again. And everyone around was hootin' and yellin', and the barker was begging me to come out of the ring 'afore I got killed. I heard him hollering for me to give up. Lay down and play dead, like the Irishman was a bear or something. I think he might have been half-grizzly at that, now I think of it."

"But you didn't give up."

To Lou's surprise, this comment was greeted with silence.

Then: "Only I _did_ , though."

Lou peered over the fire, trying to make out Kid's form. Though his face was wreathed in shadow, she could tell his eyes were closed and his features bore a look of deep shame. "I don't understand," she said. "You got Katy …"

"I was laying there on my face in the dirt," Kid went on as if he didn't hear her. "Hurtin' like I never did in my whole life, and I've known a world of hurt. I heard the crowd shouting for me to git up, but I just couldn't bring myself to move."

"Nobody could blame you for that, Kid."

"But then, as I lay there – I think I was even cryin' – all of a sudden I heard that man's voice again, in my head. The stablemaster. Tellin' me I'd never be worth $20. I seen his face, lookin' at me like I was something he'd shoveled out of a stall. And I felt such a powerful anger well up in me, like nothin' I'd felt before. It was bigger'n the pain from the beating. Strong enough to push me to my feet, just long enough to hear the bell ring three minutes. I got my $25 from the barker and half-crawled back to that stable. Handed the stablemaster his twenty and took my horse. My Katy. The only thing I ever had that was truly mine."

The raw emotion in Kid's voice scared Lou a little. He'd always seemed so controlled, so steady. But now he'd thrown an arm across his face and lay on his back, fairly vibrating with some barely restrained passion.

"It's okay, Kid," she assured him. "You won. You got Katy and started riding for the Express and everything was better."

"No, it warn't, Lou!" he barked, uncovering his face and turning onto his side to fix her with an intense, anguished stare. "Don't you see? It would have been better if I'd never gotten Katy, or the job with the Express, or …" He clamped his mouth shut, then started again, his words fast and desperate. "It was pride – stubborn, sinful pride – that got me that horse. And pride's what caused me to lose her, and my job. To lose … all the things that mean most to me in the world."

"How can you say that, Kid? You're a good man."

He shook his head vigorously and responded harshly, "No, I ain't. My ma used to say, 'Pride goeth before the fall.' She sure was right. Me thinkin' I deserved a horse like Katy, a good, respectable job, a-a beautiful, sweet-hearted gal to love and who'd love me back. Dreamin' about having a ranch, a rosy-colored future, like some danged fool. Pride, Lou. That's what made me try … and fail."

Lou was trembling now, confused and genuinely frightened for him. "You got it all wrong, Kid! Respectin' yourself ain't the same as prideful sin. Wantin' to better yourself, to raise yourself up outta the dirt – that ain't a bad thing."

"But dirt is what I know. I'm a sharecropper's son," Kid persisted. "Common as an old shoe. I'll never be excitin' and dangerous, like Jimmy. Or elegant like them high-falutin' type fellas you meet in town." Lou blushed, sensing he was referring to Tyler Dewitt, the insurance man with the polished manners who had turned out to be anything but a gentleman. That she had allowed herself to be charmed by him was a source of deep shame to the young woman. But her flirtation with that evil man had at least opened her eyes to the man she actually wanted: Kid.

It had all seemed so simple back then, as Kid had pulled her against him in a sweet kiss that took her breath away and made her knees go weak. She'd known she loved him at that moment. She loved him still. What was in their hearts was never the problem between them. It occurred to Lou that Kid might be right about pride being their downfall. His pride, and hers. But she couldn't allow him to keep feeling this way. It hurt too much.

"Kid, listen to me," she said softly, but with firmness. "What happened between us … it didn't have anything to do with you not bein' good enough for me. Any gal would be over the moon to have a man like you by her side."

Kid grunted. "'Cept one."

"Like I said, going our separate ways wasn't about where you come from or yer manners or whether you wear silk shirts and a mother-of-pearl tie pin."

He looked at her then, waiting and, she hoped, a little more open to what she had to say.

"When I said … what I did … in the stable, it wasn't because I didn't care fer ya anymore or wanted somebody else. In a funny kinda way, I guess we were both feeling the same thing. I didn't believe I was the kinda gal you could ever really settle down with."

"How could you think such a thing, Lou?" Kid asked, sounding genuinely bewildered. "You're everything I ever dreamed of in a woman."

"Even though I'm not a nice girl?" Lou's voice was soft, almost pleading.

Kid sat up abruptly. "What do you mean, yer not a nice girl? You're the sweetest, most generous-hearted person that ever-"

Lou shook her head. "That's not what I mean. I'm talkin' about … us bein' together … a'fore we were wed. Like you said in the swimmin' hole that time, it ain't right to do such things less'n you're married to each other."

Kid nodded thoughtfully, then lay back down on the bedroll. "I admit we sorta put the cart before the horse, Lou. But it takes two ox to make a team."

Lou couldn't help chuckling at his colorful metaphor. "I reckon you're right. I guess we're about as smart as a pair of dumb oxen, too."

"And as stubborn."

Another snort from Lou. "Seems like." She looked into the campfire a minute and smiled sadly. "Well, we're a well-matched pair anyhow."

Kid didn't reply, and Lou thought maybe he'd fallen asleep. But then she heard him tossing restlessly on his blanket, and finally he spoke.

"When I was a kid," he began slowly, "we had an old, broken-down horse. Mick was his name. He was well past his prime, but all we could afford. And he was a good old boy; he'd do anything you asked, and we worked him a lot harder than a horse with his years under him should have to.

"One blazin' hot day in August, my brother Jed was supposed to use Mick to pull up some stumps on our little piece of property. Jed never was one for hard work – he took after my pa that way – and he was in a hurry to go to town. So he worked that old horse without a break for hours. Finally, when Mick could barely stand up on his four spindly legs, Jed led him to our spring-fed water trough.

"Poor Mick was so overheated and under-watered that he practically dove into that cold water. He started drinking, and though Jed knew better than to let him do it, the fact was he didn't care enough to stop him. Mick drank and drank that cold water, and then he staggered away from the trough and dropped down dead. It was too much water, drunk too fast, and his heart couldn't take it."

"How awful!" Lou exclaimed, horrified and sickened at the image Kid created.

"I kinda think you and me was like Mick," Kid continued in a low voice. "Both havin' had so little love in our lives, and thirstin' for it like that overworked horse. When we found it, it tasted so sweet that we couldn't get enough. But too much of even a good thing is like poison; it overwhelms ya and makes you sick inside."

"Is that what you think about what we had together, Kid? A sickness?"

"Naw, I don't mean for you to take it that way." He made a frustrated sound. "You know I ain't no good at expressin' things, leastwise not by talkin'. It's like you said yourself, that day in the stable. We jest went too far, too fast."

Too far, too fast, and they'd lost their way.

The campfire was dying down now, starting to become embers. The dark night pressed closer around the two riders, and Lou could no longer see Kid.

"I wish we could go back," Lou said.

A voice from the darkness: "Me, too."

More minutes of silence. The embers lost their orange glow, faded to white.

"I miss my best friend." There was a hitch in Lou's whisper.

From the darkness, soft as a sigh: "Me, too."


	12. Chapter 12

"Stop here." Kid's whisper was urgent in Lou's ear, causing her to pull up on Lightning's reins. After a night in which neither had really slept, they'd broken camp as the first, pale light of dawn was touching the tops of the pines above them. The ride to the top of the ridge was challenging, as Kid had warned, but Lightning was sure-footed and strong after a night's rest, and they soon surmounted the peak.

After that they'd ridden in silence for more than an hour. Kid had chosen a route that took them away from the creek; if they'd followed it they would have run right up on the sluice Kid and the other three men had constructed to wash out any placer gold from the muck and gravel of the creekbed. Instead, this way would take them in a wide loop that would bring them to the rear of the camp they hoped was occupied by the men they sought.

Now, with Lightning stopped in the middle of a dense stand of trees, Lou and Kid climbed down to catch their breath before the final push.

"The camp is just over that rise," Kid whispered, nodding uphill. "By now them cowboys should be down at the creek. I'll sneak in, grab Katy and the rest of the gear and be back here before-"

"Hold on a second, Kid," Lou said. "I hope you aren't suggestin' leaving me here while you go risk your neck on your own."

"There's no use both of us goin," Kid protested. "If something happens, you'll be able to high-tail it back to Douglas and let 'em know what happened."

Fear and frustration welled up in Lou, foamed over. "You listen to me," she hissed, clenching a handful of the front of his tunic in her small fist. "That ain't the way it's gonna go. What if them fellas are there? Then it's three against one, and even you cain't beat them odds."

"But we've only got one gun between us," Kid argued. "So how does the both of us walkin' into danger improve our chances?"

"It'll make fetchin' back Katy and grabbin' up the goods twice as fast, for one thing," Lou said, fumbling with the snaps on the saddlebag. She pulled out her holster and handed it to Kid. "You're the sure-shot, so you get the gun."

"Lou!" Kid whispered hotly as she started trudging up the hill. "You come on back here!"

"If yer comin', get a move on," she whispered back without pausing. Behind her, she heard Kid muttering under his breath and the snap of twigs as he hurried to catch up with her.

The two riders moved stealthily over the ridge, then crouched in the brush to look down on the camp set up in a clearing below. Sure enough, it was apparent the three thieves had returned to the spot, as the site was clearly being occupied. Katy and three other horses were tethered to trees at the far side of the open space. Lou and Kid exchanged relieved smiles to see the Paint mare looking none the worse for wear. The horses' saddles were draped over a fallen log near the animals. A still-smoldering fire occupied the center of the camp, and on the side closest to the riders, just below them, was a canvas tent. Piles of gear were lined up alongside it. As Kid had predicted, the place seemed deserted.

"Let's go," Lou whispered. She started forward, keeping low to the ground. But Kid grabbed her arm. Irritated, she glanced back at him – and saw that his eyes were wide, staring at something beyond her. She looked back down at the silent camp. And then she saw them.

Two bodies lay sprawled on the ground at the edge of the treeline. They didn't move, and based on the dark puddles that seeped out from under them, they never would again.

"Indians?" Lou mouthed.

Kid lifted his eyebrows to indicate he was as baffled as her.

"Where's the other one?" Lou whispered. "D'ya think whoever did this took him with them?"

"No idea," Kid murmured, "and I don't intend to stick around long enough to find out." He cocked his head toward the tent. "See that leather satchel on top of the feedbag?" Lou looked and nodded. "Unless they stowed it somewhere else, the survey papers are in that bag. The gold, too."

He cast another quick glance in the direction of the distant corpses, then turned back to Lou. "I'll fetch Katy while you sneak down and grab that bag." Lou nodded, recognizing that he'd chosen the more dangerous task. While she could stick to the cover of the forest almost right up to the tent, Kid would have to cross the open campsite, moving in the direction where two dead men were leaking the last of their life's blood out onto the ground.

Lou ran her eyes over Kid's tense form, taking in every inch of the man who was so precious to her. She was struck by a wild desire to grab his hand and run back to Lightning and gallop back across the prairie, a world where men's bodies didn't lie in the dust like so much trash. But it was too late for that. "G'luck!" she said softly and then spontaneously pressed her lips quickly against his. Before he had time to react, she was scrambling down through the thick foliage, headed toward the camp.

Reaching the edge of the clearing, Lou paused, staying stock still as she used eyes and ears to confirm that the camp was indeed deserted. Glancing to her right, she caught sight of a rustling in the tall grass at the treeline: It was Kid, making his way around the margin of the clearing toward the horses. Lou caught a flash of brown, then saw Kid dash across the open space straight for Katy. The faithful mare sensed his approach and swung her head around. Lou's heart stopped when the dappled horse, recognizing her best friend, stamped her feet and whinnied loudly. Then Kid was beside her, gentling her with soft caresses and whispered words.

Lou watched long enough to see Kid hoist his saddle onto Katy's back, then turned her attention to her own task. Looking around, she stepped quietly into the clearing. The satchel with the documents was no more than a dozen feet away, and she had traversed the distance and seized her prize in a few seconds. But as she started to turn back toward the shelter of the trees, she heard a sickeningly familiar sound close by her ear – the hammer of a pistol being pulled back. Before she could react, a rough, meaty palm clamped over her mouth and she was pulled backward against a hard body. She dropped the satchel when she felt the cool contact of a pistol barrel against her temple.

"Don't make a sound," a gravelly voice growled in her ear. Lou stood frozen in place, feeling her captor's hot, foetid breath on her neck. The young woman's eyes focused on Kid, whose back was turned to them as he cinched Katy's saddle. He hadn't seen the man grab Lou, but she knew the man had seen the Kid. Desperately Lou tried to mentally communicate with the young man across the distance between them, willing him to somehow sense the danger and flee. Then she felt the pistol barrel move from against her head and saw, with her peripheral vision, that her captor was stretching out his arm, aiming his gun at the unwitting Kid.

Lou jerked her head back, loosening the man's grip on her enough to open her mouth and bite down hard on the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger. "Kid!" she managed to scream when the man jerked his hand away, cursing. Time seemed to slow down as Lou saw the man's finger pull back on the trigger, felt the sharp recoil of the gun and a hot spray of gunpowder on her cheek, heard the crack of the bullet leaving the chamber. And then Kid was hitting the ground, rolling under Katy, and Lou was screaming his name.

Time snapped back into place, and through a haze of blue smoke from the gun barrel, Lou saw Kid scramble to his feet and dive into the underbrush. He was alive! The man holding Lou cursed again and clamped his hand around Lou's throat. She struggled, and he tightened his fingers in a vise-like grip, closing off her airway. "Keep still," he hissed, increasing the pressure until stars appeared before Lou's eyes and darkness began creeping inward toward her center of vision. Just before she lost consciousness, the outlaw relaxed his grip just enough to allow her to gulp in a lungful of air.

"Let her go, Baxter!" Lou heard Kid call as her mind cleared. "She's done nothin' to you!"

"Kid? I knew we shoulda put a bullet in your head when we had the chance," Baxter called back.

"Like you did to them boys?" Kid returned, and Lou realized he referred to the bodies of the other two men who had beaten him.

Baxter laughed – a harsh, merciless cackle that chilled Lou's bones. "I reckon there's enough gold in these hills for everyone. But I ain't never been one to share." Baxter cocked the pistol behind Lou's ear and pushed her roughly forward into the center of the clearing. "Ya might as well come on out, Kid," he mocked. "There ain't no place to go."

"Are you all right, Lou?" Kid hollered, his voice taut with fear. To Lou's surprise, his words set Baxter off on another fit of laughter.

"Aw, no," he guffawed. "Don't tell me you're THE Louise McCloud!"

"How do you know my name?" Lou wheezed.

"Why, from all them love letters Kid's been stowing in his saddlebag and didn't have the guts to send ya. It made mighty entertainin' reading around the campfire at night. I don't know when I've laughed so hard."

Lou felt a rush of hatred toward this man who had rummaged through Kid's private things and mocked his tenderest feelings.

"And of course, there's the last will and testament," Baxter sneered.

"What are you talkin' about?"

"Well, didn't you know? Kid's got a paper, all official-like, that says in the event of his death, all his savings in the First State Bank of St. Joseph, Missouri, are to go to Miss Louise McCloud, Sweetwater, Nebraska Territory."

Understanding swept over Lou. That was the reason Kid was so desperate to earn money, so careless in taking care of himself. He was trying to accumulate a nest egg to leave her when his luck finally ran out. The thought made her stomach turn over.

"What do you want, Baxter?" Kid called out, and Lou heard desperation in his voice.

"Throw out yer gun, then come on out here. Might as well make a party of it."

"Don't do it, Kid!" Lou managed to choke out, but she saw her pistol arc out of the brush and hit the ground a few feet away from them with a thud. A second later, Kid stood up, hands raised in surrender, and started toward them.

"Just let Lou go," he said evenly. "It's me you've got a bone to pick with."

As Kid closed to within a dozen feet of them, Lou felt Baxter jam the pistol harder against her skull. "That's close enough, Kid."

Lou could see Kid was breathing hard and his hands shook as he held them over his head. "Please," he almost whimpered. "I'm begging you. Don't hurt her. Please, please don't hurt Lou."

"And what will you do for me if'n I don't?"

"Anything! Anything!" A fat tear rolled down Kid's anguished face. "You can have whatever you want."

"Well, but there's the problem, Kid. You ain't got nothin' I want." Baxter bent his head close to Lou's and moved his hand from her throat downward, palming her left breast. "'Cept maybe this one thing. And it appears to me I've already got that."

"Baxter, don't. Please …"

"The thing is, Kid, I cain't rightly think of one solid reason to keep you livin'. You know what they say: three's a crowd." And then Baxter opened his mouth and lapped his big tongue down the length of Lou's cheek. Revulsion rose in her gullet and she was afraid she was going to be sick.

"Don't do it!" Lou found the strength to plead. "Don't hurt the Kid. I'll let ya have your way with me."

"Seems like you ain't got a choice, whatsomever I do to Kid," he taunted. "But don't worry. I'll make it real nice for ya. Maybe I'll even keep Kid around long enough to watch how a real man treats a woman." He grunted. "Then again, maybe I won't." He shifted the gun from Lou's head to point at Kid again.

And then several things happened at once. Lou saw Kid lurch forward toward them. Baxter's gun went off at the same second Lou felt something propel her from behind. Baxter was falling forward, taking Lou down with him. The next thing she knew, she was flat on her face in the dirt with a heavy weight pinning her down. Then Kid was on his knees in front of her, shoving Baxter's lifeless form off her, gathering her into his arms, sobbing with relief as he cradled her against him.

"Wha-what happened? Lou gasped. She twisted around to look behind her. Baxter was on his belly, eyes open and unseeing, a trickle of blood running from one corner of his mouth. An arrow protruded from between his shoulder blades.

And beyond the body, near the edge of the clearing, stood the Indian warrior who had let the arrow fly.


	13. Chapter 13

Lou's gasp made Kid look up. She felt him stiffen and then, a barely audible voice, he said, "Get behind me."

This was no time for arguments about who was in charge. Never taking her eyes off the man holding the bow, Lou edged slowly around Kid until his body was between her and the warrior. Peeking around Kid's torso, Lou assessed the man who was their rescuer and perhaps their new enemy. He wore deerskin leggings and rows of shell hairpipes decorated the chestpiece that covered the front of his tunic. A pair of tall eagle feathers stood up behind his head.

"Do you know any Sioux?" she whispered.

"Just about enough to get us killed," Kid replied through gritted teeth. He held his hands up, palms outward. "Bozhoo!" he said. "We come in peace."

The Indian looked startled at Kid's words. Then, astonishingly, he threw back his head and laughed.

"What did you say?" Lou asked.

"I don't know," Kid answered, sounding as bewildered as Lou felt. "I thought I said hello."

"Your words do not match the carnage around you, young one," the Indian called to them in a deep voice. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

"He speaks English!" Lou squeaked.

"Better'n me," Kid agreed. "What's a carnage?"

The native man lowered his bow and started toward them. "Our people have learned the white man can't be bothered to learn our speech, so we must learn yours," he commented. He stopped about 10 feet from the express riders, and Lou now observed that he was not a young man. Judging from the streaks of gray in the long braids that framed his face, he was about Teaspoon's age.

"Why did you kill Baxter?" Kid asked, gesturing toward the body on the ground between them.

"It appeared he was about to do the same to you," the man replied mildly. "Should I have let him?"

By now Lou felt confident enough of the Indian's friendly intentions to step out from behind Kid.

"Thank you for saving us," she said sincerely, "whatever your reason."

"Yes, thank you. Meegwich," Kid added. "I'm called The Kid, and this is Lou."

"My name is Takoda," the Indian said.

"It's lucky you happened by when you did," Lou commented, and Takoda laughed again.

"I have been following you since you came to the creek yesterday." He smiled at Lou and Kid's astonished looks. "You would not make very good scouts, little ones. I camped no more than a stone's throw from you last night." Takoda then grew serious. "Unlike many of my people, I do not believe all white men are devils. I have known many I could call friend. That is why I will warn you that these hills are sacred to my people. We will not allow the white race to defile it."

"That is not our intention," Kid began, but Takoda held up a warning hand.

"Your reasons for being here are of no matter. Already you have offended the Earth Mother by stealing from her river, and profaned the ground by staining it with blood."

"Please believe that we had no wish to offend," Kid offered. "Is there is some way we can make up for what we've done?"

"Only by leaving _Paha Sapa_ , taking with you what you brought and leaving behind what is not yours," Takoda said. "Return to your own people and tell them there is no place for the white civilization in this place. Warn them that the Lakota will fight to keep our ground sacred."

Kid nodded. "We will. But you must know that once the word gets out that there is gold in these hills, there will be no stopping the flood of fortune hunters."

"Yes, some day there will be reckoning on both sides. But today is not that day. And if you tell those who sent you that you found no gold, perhaps the conflict can be forestalled for some time yet."

"We will," Lou promised.

"I suggest you pack up and leave as soon as possible," Takoda said. "My tribe is now following the buffalo far to the west of here, but they will return. I would not like for you to be discovered by some who would wish to punish you both for your trespass here."

"What about these men?" Lou asked, nodding toward the three dead in the clearing. "They weren't good men, but it ain't right to just leave 'em here for the buzzards to pick over."

"I will attend to them in our traditional way," said Takoda. "Their bodies will be given to the earth from which they came."

* * *

While Kid and Lou hurried to pack up the remnants of the survey camp, Takoda borrowed Kid's pencil box and a sheaf of paper. Glancing at the native man occasionally while they worked, Lou noticed he had rekindled the embers of the campfire and was now seated on the ground next to the flames, bent over the sheaf of paper he'd laid on the ground.

At last the camp was disassembled, its gear divided between Lightning and Katy. Lou and Kid had agreed to leave the dead mens' horses with Takoda as a gesture of good will. Kid was glad to find his own pistol among the items stowed away in the tent, along with his saddlebag of personal items. As Kid and Lou mounted their loaded horses to depart, Takoda rose and came to see them off.

"I think this is yours," Kid said, handing him a small canvas bag. "It's all the placer gold we panned."

"Thank you. I will give it back to the river." Takoda then handed Kid the document he'd been working on. It was rolled into a scroll and tied up with a bit of sinew fringe from his tunic. A distinctive shell bead – pure white with red stripes painted on it – was attached to the sinew tie. "Give this to the territorial authority," he told Kid. "It is my accounting of what happened here, and will witness to your innocence in the deaths of these three."

"I'm beholden to you," Kid said solemnly. "I hope it won't come to any difficulty, but I'll be glad of your testimony if it does."

"If you return to the creek and follow it, you will come to the river the whites call the Cheyenne," Takoda said. "From there you can cross the plain in safety, without having to go through the Badlands."

Kid nodded, then looked at Lou. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." Lou leaned down to offer her hand to the Indian who had proved such a friend to them. "We can't thank you enough for your help," she said. "I hope we meet again some day."

As they rode out of the clearing, Lou glanced over her shoulder. Takodah had begun to chant in his own language while he tossed bundles of sweet sage on the campfire. The fragrant smoke followed the riders a long way.


	14. Chapter 14

What a difference the return journey was! It was a sweet pleasure to ride beside Kid again, though she did miss his warm solidity behind her on the saddle. They carefully avoided the topics that had proven so painful on the way. Instead they chatted comfortably, exchanging teasing banter, admiring the scenery and wildlife around them and simply enjoying one another's company. It felt like old times.

For dinner they enjoyed tinned meats and corn and even peaches, and Lou even made buckwheat flapjacks for breakfast. At night they slept, each on their own bedroll, in the cozy tent. The weather was fine and the way was smooth. It should have been perfect … except for one thing. On the morning of what they expected would be the last day in the wild country, Lou decided to broach the subject that hung over them like a thundercloud.

"What that man Baxter said while he was holding me," she began. "Was it true?"

Beside her, Kid stiffened a little in his saddle. "Which part?"

"About the … letters ya wrote me."

"I s'pose he got it about right."

"Were ya ever gonna send them letters, Kid?"

"I guess not. Doesn't seem like there's much point. There were just some things I needed to get off my chest, that's all. For myself."

Lou felt a keen stab of disappointment. Had she really expected him to hand over his love letters to her in a stack, maybe tied up with fancy ribbon? Like a silly schoolgirl, she had hoped he would. How she longed to read what he felt about her, in his deepest heart of hearts. Never mind, she told herself. What's done is done. There was, however, one matter that needed taking care of.

"Well, I hope Baxter got one thing wrong. That part about your last will and testament."

Kid looked at her sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to think you've been takin' all these chances with your life just so you can git killed and leave me yer stored-up savings."

Her traveling companion frowned and Lou saw a muscle working in his jaw. He was irritated. "Seems like I'm allowed to do what I want with my own pay."

"But why would you leave everything to me, now that we're not ridin' double anymore?"

He gave her a quick, sidelong glance. "Just 'cause my dream ain't gonna happen doesn't mean you shouldn't have yours. I want you to have that ranch for you and your sister and brother. You deserve it."

"Aw, Kid," Lou sighed, touched to the heart by his generosity, but aching with regret at the same time. "Do you think I could have a minute's peace or happiness on land that was bought with blood money? Knowin' you died to give me my dream? Do you really want to hurt me that much?"

He swiveled his head to stare at her. "Hurt ya? No, Lou! That's not why I done it. I just want you to be happy, don't you know that? I'd give anything, do anything, to make you happy."

"If you really want to make me happy, you'll come home to Sweetwater."

Kid exhaled sharply. "I cain't."

"Why not, Kid? Don't you know we need you?" _I_ need you, she thought to herself.

"It's too late, Lou. What's done is done."

Lou could have laughed at the cruel irony of hearing Kid repeat the very words she'd spoken to herself only minutes before. Hard experience and a stern education at the hands of the mission sisters had imbued Lou with a pragmatic, almost pessimistic world view. In contrast to the upbeat, anything-is-possible attitude she had been accustomed to from Kid, Lou tended to be wary, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now, however, it seemed their roles had reversed. Kid had lost his clear-eyed vision, and Lou wanted desperately to believe in happy endings.

"What will you do?" Lou asked.

Kid gave a listless shrug. "Head back to Denver first, turn in the survey to the McCall Company, along with my report that gold was nowhere to be found."

"How will you explain what happened to them three others?"

"I'll tell the truth, more or less. They was afflicted with gold fever, believing there was a treasure to be found, and in their greed to get whatever we might find to themselves, they beat me up and left me for dead, then fell to fightin' and wound up killin' each other. I'll say I found 'em dead when I tracked them back to the camp."

"And after that? Where will you go?"

"Head further west, maybe. California or Oregon." Kid dropped his eyes to the back of Katy's neck. "Or I might go home to Virginia. Take up the cause my brother died for."

"Kid! I know you're never-"

"Steal and murder innocent people like Jed did? 'Course not. But there are other ways to take a stand for what you believe in."

Lou's eyebrows knit in vexation. "I don't understand. You rode alongside Noah, helped Ulysses escape. How can you take up the Southern cause now?"

She watched Kid's mouth form a hard line and his eyes narrow in irritation. This was an old argument, and he was clearly tired of it. "How many times do I have to explain, it ain't all about slavery? My family never owned another human being. Hell, the way we was yolked to our landlord for our few paltry acres, we weren't far from slaves ourselves."

Lou shot him a sharp look, and Kid colored slightly. "All right, I know it ain't the same thing, and I'd be happy if Virginia and the other slave-holding states found a way around the practice. But that's somethin' the people who live there should have the right to decide, not the federal government."

"Don't seem like Ulysses had much right to decide, or Stagecoach Sally," Lou protested.

Kid threw up his hands. "I give up. There's no use explainin' to y'all who never lived in it that not everything is so black and white." His face set like stone, Kid tightened his knees around Katy's flanks to urge her to a faster trot that took them ahead of Lou and Lightning.

Lou rode behind him, watching his broad back and recognizing the tension and frustration in his posture. As in tune as she and the Southern cowboy were in most ways, there were things about Kid's upbringing and values that Lou didn't know and likely wouldn't understand even if she did. The same was true for her; there were parts of her life she never wanted Kid to find out about … deep hurts that played in to their break up, but which she couldn't bring herself to reveal. And now there seemed no use in trying to untangle and mend the frayed threads of their relationship. With his characteristic stubbornness, Kid had made up his mind.

He wasn't coming home.

* * *

By mid-afternoon they reached a proper, well-traveled trail, which they followed until it split into two paths – a literal fork in the road. One branch led south and east, toward familiar vistas and Sweetwater. The other led west toward the Rockies and the still little-known lands beyond them.

Kid pulled up, and Lou stopped beside him.

"I guess this is where we part ways," Kid said, his voice a little husky.

"Kid, I've been thinkin'," Lou began in a rush. "I better ride on with you to Denver. What if them company officials don't believe you about the those three dead men? What if they accuse you of murder? I should be there to back up your story."

"No, Lou. I've gotta deal with this on my own. And you've got to get back to Sweetwater. Teaspoon and the boys must be half-crazy worrying about you by now. I bet they've been scouring the countryside."

"They ain't," Lou assured him. "When you were gettin' your shave in Douglas, I ran across one of the riders at the waystation. I sent word back to Teaspoon, lettin' him know I had some business to take care of."

"Still, they're down two riders with you gone. It's time you go home."

Lou wanted to tell him that home was wherever he was. She wanted to hug him and never let him go. She wanted to shout at him to stop being so independent and pig-headed, and she wanted to bust out crying. She did none of these things. Instead, she nodded. "I guess if you've made up your mind that's the way it's gotta be …"

"It is."

"Well, take care of yerself, Kid. Please don't take any more chances on my account. And-and don't forget about me." Her voice cracked on those last words, and she wheeled Lightning about before Kid saw the tears beginning to streak her face. "Gee-a!" she told Lightning, clicking her heels against his sides. The black stallion broke into a gallop, carrying Lou away from a tall, forsaken-looking cowboy and his beloved Paint horse. If she'd glanced behind her, she might have seen tears on his cheeks to match her own.

But she didn't.


	15. Chapter 15

Cody was half-way through one of his tall tales, and around the rough-hewn bunkhouse table, the Pony Express riders were rolling with laughter. All except one. Lou sat picking at her supper, no appetite for food or company. They were having some of Rachel's good stew. It had been Kid's favorite.

In the two weeks since she'd gotten back to Sweetwater, Lou had tried mightily to put her memories of Kid behind her. Sometimes she managed to go an hour or more without thinking of him. But then she'd spy a doe and fawn feeding next to the trail, or a tree shaped like a horse's head and she'd think, "I've gotta tell Kid about this." And then it would all come back to her, tearing open the wound in her heart that never got a chance to heal. At night she dreamt of him, by day she worried about him. And always she wanted him – longed to see his sparkling blue eyes, his wide, warm-hearted smile. Sometimes she thought she might go crazy from missing him.

"Another biscuit, Teaspoon?" Rachel said, coming around the table with a full platter. She paused next to the way station manager, her eyes having caught sight of something out the window. "That's funny."

"What is it, Rachel?" Buck asked.

"There's a horse comin' this way."

"Ah, that will be the new rider I hired today," Teaspoon said calmly.

Around the table, a chorus of objections arose.

"Naw, Teaspoon! Wait a little longer!"

"We can handle the load just fine!"

"It'd be a shame if Kid showed up again and somebody was in his bunk!"

Only Lou said nothing. She'd confided in Teaspoon about what had happened during her unscheduled "holiday." He understood, as did she, that there was no point in waiting for the handsome young rider to come home.

"Now, boys," Teaspoon responded. "You know we couldn't go on holdin' Kid's place forever. And today in town I found a perfect candidate to fill out our ranks."

By now a clatter of hooves was heard outside the door, followed by the clomp of boots on the porch. A rap on the door.

"Come on in and meet yer bunkmates!" Teaspoon called.

All the riders turned their faces toward the door as it swung open.

"Hey."

It was his voice. His tall, solid form filling the doorway. His beautiful, slightly embarrassed smile. His chestnut curls peeking out from under a brand-new hat.

"Kid!" Lou couldn't help leaping off the bench and into his arms. Immediately they were surrounded by the rest of the "family," laughing and clapping their prodigal brother on the back.

"I run into Kid in Sweetwater, and he suggested he might be willin' to join us again," Teaspoon teased. "I told him I guessed we was desperate enough to take him on."

"So where'n hell have you been all this time, Kid?" Jimmy demanded. "We figured you rode off the edge of the earth or somethin', you were so scarce."

"Just out ridin', Jimmy," Kid laughed. He looked down into Lou's face, his warm blue eyes sparkling into her tear-filled brown ones. "I just happened to take the long way home."

EPILOGUE

Later that night, Lou found Kid where she expected to - in the barn, tending to Katy. It was a pure pleasure to see the horse back in her familiar stall. Even more so to watch the conscientious rider who took such good care of her.

Kid sensed her approach and turned, a smile on his face. "Hey."

"Hey."

Kid turned back to his work, scraping Katy's hooves.

"Settled back in all right?" Lou asked.

"Yep. Got my gear stowed and bed made just like I never left it."

Lou couldn't tell Kid how the sight of his empty bunk had tormented her while he was gone, and what a powerful joy she felt knowing he'd occupy it again tonight. Instead she asked, "What happened in Denver?"

Kid stopped working and turned to her, a kind of wonder on his face. "You won't believe it. At first I was accused of murderin' those boys, just like you figured I would be. For a little while I thought I'd be strung up for sure."

Lou felt a tightening around her heart, realizing how close she'd come to losing him forever. "How'd you convince 'em?"

"I didn't. But I handed over that letter Takoda gave me before we left the camp. Turns out he's well known to the territorial governor. He's a high-ranking member of his tribe and a negotiator for them with the government. He's been out east, to Washington, even went to some college. No wonder he talked such good English. And his penmanship was a sight better than mine is!"

Lou laughed at this. "So he saved your hide again!" Then she grew serious. "How is it you come back to us, Kid? You were goin' to California or back east, last I knew."

Kid ducked his head in a bashful kind of way. "Well, all the way to Denver I was thinkin' on what we been through, Lou. Not just in the Dakota Territory. Before that, even. Here in Sweetwater. Learnin' to be Express riders. Working alongside each other." He picked up a brush and began currying Katy. "And it occurred to me that just because some dreams don't work out the way you'd hoped, that doesn't mean there cain't be new dreams further down the trail."

"I'm glad you feel that way, Kid. And I'm happy to have you back where you belong."

The man she would love for the rest of her life turned back to face her again. "I'm happy to be here. It's good to be home."

Lou smiled. "Well, I guess I'd better turn in. I've got the run tomorrow."

Kid nodded. Then, as she turned away, he reached out to place his hand gently on her arm. "Louise," he said softly, "I don't know what's gonna happen between you and me. Whether we'll ever get back what we had. But no matter how things turn out, I want you to know. You will always be the best, the bravest, the most perfect woman I'll ever be privileged to know. Never doubt that, or the fact that you are every inch a lady."

Lou felt joy well up in her so strong she had to bite her bottom lip to keep from crying. "Thank you, Kid." She left him still grooming Katy and headed back to the bunkhouse, walking on air. Above her, the stars shone almost as bright as they had that night in the Badlands. As she watched, a shooting star streaked across the heavens, making her smile.

"I don't know what's gonna happen either, Kid," she whispered to herself. "But whatever your dreams may be, I want to be a part of makin' them come true" And, as she slipped into the silent bunkhouse and hoisted herself into her bunk, she knew her own dreams would be sweet.


End file.
